Filia favourites

[stealtheatingtunnocks]

It was my first FiLiA and I am just home from it. I had thought it would be a bit long and I didn’t really know what I was expecting

i wasn’t expecting to learn so much! It was such good spirits and laughter and inspiration.

I am afraid I will forget my favourite bits -

Nanzanin Zaghari
Sharron Davis
the woman disco
the giant vulva
the publishing talk

what were yours?

The huge pink floppy penis
The singer Nehandra from Saturday am session
All the women and the feeling of sisterhood
Vashnavi sundar 😍

I could just keep going on and on bloody loved every second of it and can't wait for Glasgow next year!!

Nehanda (they should have her as a speaker too!) and Leela, the traditional Iranian singer who did that spine tingling performance after the Nazanin interview.

I loved Nehanda, I think she was an absolute star. The Iranian singer Leila too. I enjoyed the lecture about matriarchies.

The Hague mothers session has stayed with me, can't say it was enjoyable but it was moving and important.

I also loved the pelvic floor session.

This is as well as Nazanin and the other great panels and most importantly the sisterhood.

The session on art and activism. Sonia Douglas was so brilliant

Finding out more about the campaigns. It's so easy to get lost in social media from behind a screen and get bogged down in everything being exclusively about gender (and drawn into arguing with TRAs on twitter). Learning about the Kakuma campaign and writing a postcard to actually do something about it was a highlight. And the Hague mothers campaign - what a brilliant project for a Legacy Project for FiLiA to do. If that is successful they will be able to divert a massive juggernaut that is currently mowing down survivors of domestic abuse.

Hague mothers is definitely the one that sticks with me.

Enjoyed the CR sessions too.

For me the presentation by Naomi Cunningham KC and the representative from LGBA Cymru about the legalities of holding lesbian-only and women-only events was really, really useful — something which has given me the courage to start holding and advertising public female-only and lesbian-only events again. Yesterday we advertised our Christmas event as 'Female-only. Male-bodied individuals will not be admitted.' It felt good after fudging it for the last few years.

Naomi has produced two versions: the short version for small groups and individuals who have felt unsure of where they stand when organising women-only or lesbian-only groups such as walking groups, informal social groups, small one-off events etc.

There's a much longer version for larger and more formally-organised organisations, charities and so on. Naomi's a top barrister, so it's like having a top barrister's advice to hand. This is something that I think many of us could have done with years ago.

You can download it here:
lgballiancecymru.wales/the-legal-defence-of-lesbian-space/

For pure joy it was difficult to beat Elaine Millar talking about the wonders and perils of female anatomy.

The video of the interview with Nazanin Zaghari is up on YouTube now.

Loving to see so many mentions of Nehanda. I have met up with her in real life a few times and she is an amazing, inspirational woman. Absolutely love her.