Saudi owned Newcastle United suspends membership of women's rights activist

[zanahoria]

A gender-critical Newcastle United fan says the club have suspended her membership because police investigated her for tweeting that “trans women are men”.
The 34-year-old, who asked not to be identified, was interviewed under caution by police after a complaint over tweets in which she also said that gender-affirming surgery was “mutilating children”. The investigation has now been dropped

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/12/newcastle-united-fan-membership-suspended-trans-tweets/

Thread:

Lesbian interviewed under caution for tweets www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4940249-lesbian-interviewed-under-caution-for-tweets

Understandable really,what with their owners being so inclusive and tolerant and stuff.

The club seizes a chance to virtue signal in spite of its being Saudi-owned. This is what ID politics allows companies to do: look virtuous while never changing anything fundamental about dodgy practices.

The man who dobbed her in to Newcastle United (and the police) is bragging about his saintly behaviour all over Twitter 🙄

See this is why women cannot trust the police.

FFS! It’s all madness!

NC: I'm in a group with the woman in question and she has today heard that she has been banned from NUFC membership for two years and cannot attend matches there and away games. The premier league 'will be also notified.'

This is absolutely ridiculous. And she's devastated.

that is bonkers

It's beyond ridiculous.

Fuck off Saudicastle F.C.

Newcastle are being harder on her than football clubs are towards travelling hooligan fans. That’s stupendously punitive when she has done nothing anywhere close to the level of hooliganism.

She needs to investigate grounds to sue NU and the FA (if they also ban her) for discrimination. And if she starts a crowd justice fund, I’ll happily contribute.

Another one who hope she challenges this

The tweets they're citing as an issue are different to the one quoted in the op, but there's still no grounds for any of this. Particularly as the police are taking no further action.

I'd donate to a crowdfund, too.

It's time businesses learned that rainbow-washing doesn't work, and misogyny costs them.

I'd contribute to a crowdfund too. I'm hoping this will be Newcastle FC's bud lite moment. Some football fans are wankers but a lot are decent and will see this for what it is.

Also, big surprise that misogynist Saudi owners take the side of a man in this. If it wasn't obvious they were men, the fact they're given so much support for hurty feelings by owners in countries that are so anti-women and known for human rights abuses of women would be a sure fire giveaway.

She should definitely challenge it.

WTF since when did football clubs ban people for tweets. I can't believe they actually doubled down and made this so much worse for themselves.

Wankers.

There is precedent for Clubs banning supporters for tweets Beetle.

Leyton Orient (2021): 3 year ban - racist abuse of England men’s team members after 2020 World Cup.

Portvale (2021): indefinite ban - racist abuse of a Leyton Orient Player.

Preston (2022): lifetime ban over what the headline describes as “derogatory” tweets about the Royal Family, but included (tagging in the Club) a wish they’d all die en route to the late Queen’s funeral; accusing the late Queen of being a Nazi; & announcing plans to boo during the minute’s silence in her honour.

Chelsea (2023): lifetime ban after a conviction for a decade’s worth of antisemitic abuse directed at another supporter. (Presumably he wasn’t only antisemitic about the one Jewish man in question; but that abuse was what he was tried & convicted for; triggering first a suspension during the investigation; & then a ban).

While it’s at a Club’s discretion to some degree, it’s usually in reaction to racist abuse surrounding football. The outlier Preston case will be because he was tagging the Club in & threatening to cause disruption. (We also don’t know what else may have gone on.)

So banning-for-tweets has been happening for a few years, at least; but clearly in this instance it is egregious they have done so when the case [that should never have been opened] was NFA’d. I can understand having to suspend her when she was under police investigation if, & only if, advised by the police of it. But this is simply abusive; & as a PP pointed out, rainbow-washing with a side order of misogyny.

The point is that she was banned for tweets which a KC has said could not constitute a crime. Not only have the police NFAed this case, they should never have spoken to her.

If Newcastle don’t back down, they are likely to find they have broken the Equality Act.

The tweets are no where near the ball park of those examples cited here. They're not 'hate crimes' and as you say, KCs have also said they're not crimes in any way. And yes, discrimination. And I'd also say anti safeguarding practices.

Men’s football has a huge problem accepting homosexuality. You would be pushed to identify half a dozen out players in the four EFL divisions.

Women’s football does not appear to have a problem with lesbian players, apart from the not uncommon issue of partners playing each other in competitive matches.

Some men for whatever reason seem to have less of a problem accepting transgenderism. Perhaps they feel less threatened. It then becomes a way of signalling how tolerant they are.

Eddie Howe, Newcastle’s manager who is generally a decent bloke and who probably does not have a problem with homosexuality either, won plaudits for his acceptance of transgenderism.
https://www.afcb.co.uk/news/club-news/not-today-how-i-chose-life-available-in-superstore/
Thankfully the 3x life size cut of Sophie Cook outside Bournemouths ground has now disappeared, and I think at the last match they no longer had mascots waving the progress flag. (Cherries won…against NUFC so maybe a good omen.)

Transwomen in women’s teams would really dampen interest in the women’s game, a game that both NUFC and AFCB are promoting heavily. NUFC should give this one some thought. Banning women for seeking to protect women (and by implication women’s sport) is not a good look.

A Saudi-owned club banning a woman for stating a known fact. This will not age well. The hypocrisy is rank.

Please sign and share this petition for her membership reinstatement

citizengo.org/en-gb/212368-transwomen-are-men-unban-newcastle-united-fan

Do not say 'signed' here as TRAs have a tendency to monitor threads and cross reference names.

I doesn’t matter who owns the FC club. It’s just an off shore investment to the Saudi that owns it. It’s not like he or she can tell the club how to operate or to impose sharia law or ignore U.K. hate speech laws or even dictate who gets to be a member.

This is all the decision of the local manager, Eddie Howe, in the U.K.

So while I understand the anger, I think it’s misdirected anger.

Have read and signed the petition. I then checked the originator, and it’s CitizenGo, apparently a conservative organisation that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. Just thought people should be aware.
Doesn’t change my views on the club ban though.

It does matter who owns the club. It is the Saudi state and a minister of their government is the chairman and regularly attends games.