Big update on Rape Crisis legal challenge

[IamSarah]

I know many of you have been waiting for an update so first of all thank you for your patience and the many messages of support.

I am suing Survivors Network, the Sussex Rape Crisis service, as it refused to offer a single sex women’s group in addition to the mixed sex women’s groups. By mixed sex I mean inclusive of any males who identify as women.

I’ve been granted anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the case and it was submitted to Brighton County Court today.

I am being represented by law firm Didlaw and my Barrister is Naomi Cunningham (Chair of Sex Matters). So far they have acted pro bono which I am incredibly grateful for as it has taken a lot of time. The team are confident I have a good case but this is unchartered territory for women’s rights.

Many of you have very kindly offered to be involved and help with gardening. I don’t think I’m allowed to share details on here so please go to my Twitter page http://twitter.com/SarahSurviving/ which has all the info in a pinned post.

Of you’re not on Twitter feel free to send me a DM for more information on how you can help the case. Any publicity you can give the crowd funder would really help.

Thank you everyone.

Sarah x

It was actually September 2021 when I first asked for a single sex group.

It will be almost 3 years by the time it gets to court.

Three years! bloody hell! I remember the two years it took me to get to court the first time seemed like forever! so I feel your pain!

Ooh after posting my post up thread at silly o'clock in the morning I forgot to go and actually do some gardening.

Looks out of curtain, there's still some daylight left.

Pulls wellies on!

Might go and plant a few hardy perennials!

We're all with you Sarah!❤

I have just gardened.

Such an important case, it needs to be heard and I'm appalled by the delays.

With you all the way Sarah - I cannot believe this is still ongoing. That anyone thinks a female victim of rape is not allowed to have safe space away from male bodies in order to heal is a disgrace.

Obviously all anyone can hope for is that victims of sexual abuse can learn to overcome their trauma, fear and associated reactions from being violated. I totally also get that some women might be okay with doing that work in the presence of transwomen. But to force exposure to male bodies in that kind of situation, before someone is ready, call them bigoted if they are uncomfortable and deny them any other opportunity for support, is just all kinds of wrong.

And women as adult victims are one thing - but I cannot get my head around thinking that a child victim might be put in this position too.

@IamSarah would you mind just updating your crowdfunding page to reflect your additional funding needs? Currently your crowdfunding target indicates that you have more than enough carrots by quite a margin, but the page is probably just out of date.

If we could just know how many carrots are required, including enough extra ones for you to be comfortable, then I am sure they will all get planted, and I will be among those who make it happen.

to force exposure to male bodies

done purely for male benefit.

Male feelings all important and must always be protected: female rape victims can put male people first or handle their rape alone and unaided.

Not even a group on a separate site under cover of darkness can be provided for females as too distressing to male sensibilities to know that this exists, and that they cannot access this one as well as the three choices already available to them. Male feelings of exclusion from an unneeded resource matter more than helping a female rape victim. By people supposedly experts in this.

You couldn't write sitcoms this messed up.

Can I second the comment about updating the target. There are, unfortunately, other deserving cases that I support and as it looked like you have met your target I gave more elsewhere last month.

Oh of course, I don't have access to the crowdfunding page myself but will speak to my solicitor.

There is still another preliminary hearing coming up in December which should clarify how much is needed for litigation and expert witnesses.

So sorry if the page hasn't been clear and thank you so so much to everyone who has donated.

My solicitor wrote a blog about crowdfunding for legal cases (including my case) which explains how the model works:

didlaw.com/crowdjustice-funding

for your stamina and forebearance Sarah in the face of this fatigue them into the ground "justice" system.

Not forgetting the incomprehensibly narcissistic trans ideologues who have colonised a service primarily needed by women to push their misogynystic vendetta.

At least the way this is being dragged out means more months when I can add to the pot.

If anyone has been following Cathy Boardman's employment tribunal case, she has recently agreed on a settlement from her former employer. She has very kindly passed on the excess from her crowdfunder to mine. Details on this Twitter/X thread

x.com/grittynorthern/status/1707058992202019212?s=46&t=NGJBRqkXgp1UazF5I8yjXA

I read that yesterday, so pleased she has passed it on to you. 👏👏

It is so heart warming to see women supporting each other in this way and the passing on of the baton and money for the next fight.

What fantastic news!

A double or even a triple win!

For Cathy Boardman, for more money towards IamSarah fund - and a statement where an employer has had to say "legally protected beliefs in the immutablity of sex"!

I'm glad to hear that they've folded, but in a way, I think that they're utterly cowardly, because they must have received advice that they'd have their arse handed to them, if it went to court.

As one of those who donated to Cathy I was pleased with where she sent the balance.

Well done Cathy , women supporting women 💚🤍💜👏👏👏

In my online Equality training yesterday, the example used to illustrate how single-sex exemptions work under the Equality Act 2010....was a rape crisis centre providing female-only services and staff as male bodies could upset female victims. Why is this not being upheld when it's literally the example of the law??? (Maybe because then a transwoman couldn't be head of Edinburgh rape crisis services?)

(The training did also state that the women in a team were in the wrong if they objected to a male team member who transitioned to a woman using the ladies toilets).

Well I agree that if a Male has transitioned to a Woman, he should be treated as such. I just don't agree that this is a thing.

Total incoherence.

Men being treated as women in all circumstances is not compatible with meeting all women's needs in women's services.

Men are also unwilling to accept any compromise that would make it work just fine, such as some facilities being mixed sex women's, and some female only.

Which sadly means that boundaries for men, to protect women, are going to have to be set in law and everyone is going to have to be very, very clear in words of one syllable that male people are male, never become women, and must face that however hurtful. And the more persistent 'I am coming in because I'm a woman!' male people will have to be very clearly told that no, they are a TW and some women's things are not for them, and if necessary, face consequences for refusing to respect female only spaces created for inclusion and access for females.

But I have no sympathy left now: I did once have a lot, but it's exhausted. It's the absolute inacapacity to care about women or do anything but bully and threaten and exert male entitlement and expectation to matter more than any woman and to direct and control women and their resources as a superior being, that has pushed it to this point. Men do not own and control women's resources, they do not get to just exclude and abandon the women inconvenient in male centred women's resources, it's insane sexism. It will take time to build and for everyone to lose enough patience (and enough women to be harmed) but it will eventually get there, they've left everyone no other choice.

Define "transition" though. At the moment a man doesn't even have to change name or shave or wear a wig or put on a dress, just say the magic words "I feel like a woman" and they have transitioned. You can't define 'living like a woman.' But do try, I'd love to hear it 😁

What point are you making here? That if a man could actually change sex he should then be treated as a woman, but since that's not possible it's a moot point?

You mean like, if I could transform base metal into gold I'd be very rich?

Yes my point is what I wrote. If a man can turn into a woman, he should be treated as such. And vice versa.
But as pp mentioned, it's moot because it's not possible.

Posted twice, deleted duplicate