Sarah Phillimore amazing work on looking at the '19,000+' signatures on the Open letter to BBC complaining about the Lesbians pressured into sex article.

[PatsArrow]

I think I've put too much in the title!

Sarah Phillimore has done some great work here looking properly at the signatures to the Open Letter to the BBC.

19,000 signatures? More like 9,701? Really interesting.

sarahphillimore.substack.com/p/repent-repent

@MonsignorMirth

Just to be clear, mishy you laughed when reading the accounts of gay women being forced or coerced into sex? Can you please clarify this for me, as I think that pushes "civility" a bit far.

That was my first thought as well. Surely you didn't laugh at the results of the 'poll' as well as the narratives in the article which was full of narratives from lesbians coerced into sex they didn't want @mishyjdi ?

I think most people would find any instance of rape or sexual abuse to be abhorrent, whether that was 1 or 1000. Those handwaving away these have a very sinister agenda.

* I am in australia and didn’t sign it although I am a citizen, but while living in the uk wouldn’t have hesitated to sign such a thing for an Australian institution.*

So you don't believe that these women were sexually assaulted? How many victims would be enough for you to believe them?

The article mentions a few of the racist and highly offensive fake signatories, but quite a few of the fakes also seem to be tongue in cheeks TERFs like this one (I've deleted some of it as I don't want to get deleted/banned,):
"8727 - you are all lying dickphobics, #metoo is over ladies, CEO of Stonewall, Get used to it"

No doubt a lot of them are from trolls/people messing around of all stripes. Doesn't change the fact that the signatures should have been verified, and the number of signatures being trumpeted around was incorrect.

[quote prudencepuffin]Good interview with Helen Joyce on this topic:

[/quote] Yet again Helen talks so much sense. We really just need to carry on and try to ignore the extremist nonsense (Mishy et al.), we are wasting far too much time and energy debating lunacy. Which I guess is their point, to tire us out and confuse the point.

@334bu

* I am in australia and didn’t sign it although I am a citizen, but while living in the uk wouldn’t have hesitated to sign such a thing for an Australian institution.*

So you don't believe that these women were sexually assaulted? How many victims would be enough for you to believe them?

Jesus Christ on a fucking bike, how did you read that from what I said, which is that overseas signatories could easily be legit? I believe every word of it but limit what I actively campaign for in the uk as I may not be returning there to live, conscious that means I’m not a real stakeholder, but I wouldn’t be the troll/bot Sarah categorises overseas signatories as if I did sign. Australia is really my long term home, so I wouldn’t hesitate to chime in to something like this from overseas as it does affect me and my children, and presumably some of the overseas signatures on this letter feel that way about the uk.