Women's Rally in Edinburgh, Thurs, 6th Oct

[PogueMahoneBoris]

There is going to be a women's rally outside of Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) on Thursday 6th October. Gather for 11.15am for a 11.30 start. It's the one delayed from Sept 15th.

The focus of the rally (and the timing, during what is normally First Minister's Questions) is the Gender Recognition Reform Bill that is currently going through the Scottish Parliament and the impact on Scottish women's rights.

The following speakers will be there so do come along and listen, mingle, network and then come for a drink :

Cllr Alison Dowling
Elaine Miller ("fanny physio", Gusset Grips)
Lisa Mackenzie (Murray Blackburn Mackenzie)
Rhona Hotchkiss (LGB Alliance)
Helen Joyce (Sex Matters)
Maya Forstater (Sex Matters)
Johann Lamont (retired Labour MSP)
Caroline McAllister (Scottish Feminist Network)
Kate Coleman (Keep Prisons Single Sex)

The rally is organised by For Women Scotland and all are welcome to attend.
If you are coming from out of town, or even from within Edinburgh, and would appreciate some company walking into the rally (which might sound a bit intimidating if you haven't been to one before) then get in touch as there will be a couple of meeting places organised.
Looking forward to seeing you there.

Well that's why we need to follow the rally up by contacting all 8 of your MSPs. Every single one, even Sturgeon and Harvie. Let none of them say they don't hear about this on the door steps. Ask them questions, ask them how they will keep females safe in prisons, rape crisis shelters, how they will be treated in sports, how they can ensure they get a female clinician if they need one, how women of faith will be able to remain active in society without being gaslit with being told males are really females.

Fantastic to hear that it went well and wasn't disrupted.

Pogue** I went up and said hello to Elaine Miller, as you suggested and she was ace. Thanks!

Wish I'd taken my copy of Trans for Helen to sign

Lamonts speech was particuarly good.

That's a brilliant letter to NS - if her aides don't pass it on it will be her (and Scotland's) loss.

JKR and all the other GC women deserve medals for all of this.

I've just emailed all my MSPs, never done that before! For anyone else who is kind of new at this, I found this really helpful:

forwomen.scot/06/10/2022/gender-recognition-reform-bill-stage-1-action/

well done for writing ! I will write again tomorrow.

Thank you, there's not much I've felt able to do except be angry in silence, it feels good to do something about it.

I often don't feel able to put into a coherent way how I feel so having the template is brilliant for someone like me.

Not really expecting much if any response. Had a young man at the door a few months back drumming up support for one of our local councilors. I asked him what her stance on women's issues were and he looked very rabbit in the headlights before stammering something about her being for "all" women and was very inclusive but didn't seem to be able to offer more than that.

I told him to come back when she stood for just the actual women and I'd hand her my vote.

Excellent job. Told you she was lovely. 🙂

Just caught the tail end of a report about the protest on Radio 4! Said the issue divides the Scots Nats. And mentioned the JK Rowling T shirt.

Sturgeon being asked about JKR's t-shirt now "are you a destroyer of women's rights?"

And apparently NS is a real feminist, unlike the rest of us that don't want to share space with males. I hope everyone in Scotland now gets it.

Just hearing Sturgeon now god I loathe her line and I’m not in Scotland

Don’t know how you can bear it. Thanks to all those pushing on this

Thank you to everyone that turned out in the (mainly) sunshine yesterday. A very successful day. This time we got 4+ Labout MSPs out and none last year, and talks of amendments they are working on to the Bi (the Bill will still pass but it may be made slightly better). Most Tories came out, no other parties. But we were there and made the press (all hail JKR). Thank you! ❤️

To have Tories and Labour both represented is fantastic. Well done, all. And it's so lovely to hear of a rally that didn't attract threatening mobs.

www.theyworkforyou.com/msp/
THEY WORK FOR YOU is really helpful - you just write one email, and they send it to all 8 of your MSPs.
I wrote to all mine, and only one responded and said he would be at the rally.
I expressed my very strong concerns - I think it's good to put things in your own words.

Fascinating that there was no counter protest. None. Why not?

At a guess, because the TRAs know that they have "won" in Scotland? They've probably had an assurance from the SNP that the legislation will go through whatever. SNP members of the Scottish Parliament vote the way the leadership tells them to vote.

There's a blog piece now on the FWS website with links to speeches, etc. Looks like quite a few MSPs came out including half a dozen Labour and a couple of SNP.
forwomen.scot/08/10/2022/womens-rally-october-2022/

And now is the time when it's really important to email ALL of our MSPs and ask them to vote against the Bill on the 27th - there are suggested templates for letters here:
forwomen.scot/06/10/2022/gender-recognition-reform-bill-stage-1-action/

There were a handful of protesters very early on but they disappeared before the rally started.

Ooh, a couple of SNP MSPs, too. I am impressed!

Michael Matheson Is wrongly listed as Labour - he's SNP & I am properly shocked & delighted that he was there. I have been speaking & writing to him about this for years (& he stopped writing back over a year ago!!)

Oh, wow, well done, Hop! I've sadly lost all hope in my nincompoop of an SNP MP, and most of the MSPs too.

Oh I definitely can't take any credit but KEEP WRITING EVERYONE! I knew he understood it but thought he was far too much of a company man to ever break ranks.

My SNP MP is an utter lost cause & quite quite useless- doesn't matter what you write about he replies saying how the SNP are turning Scotland into the land of milk & honey & the Toarries are wronguns 🙄.

What should we be doing after emailing?