Trans Activists Set Off Explosion in Attempt to Sabotage Conference Critical of Gender Ideology (France)

[IwantToRetire]

At approximately 4:00 AM on the day the conference was to take place, an explosion occurred and a fire broke out in a room housing an electrical meter adjacent to the venue. As firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, 200 police officers were dispatched to the scene. The officers were present throughout the evening’s event in order to secure the safety of attendees.

Vandalism on the ISSEP building’s front read: “Dirty TERF,” an acronym which stands for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’ and is often used as a pejorative to harass or threaten violence against women who oppose gender identity ideology.

“No transphobes,” and “TERFs out of our struggle” were also painted on the building’s entrance next to a symbol synonymous with trans activism.

Stern, formerly an active campaigner against femicide, decided to speak at ISSEP Thursday evening despite the damage to the institute and credible threats to her safety which were shared on social media. While the event took place, more trans activists gathered outside of the venue and complained of “transphobia” to local media.

“At the conference, I talked about how children are harmed by puberty blockers, and all the women who ‘transition’, especially the teenagers, and [detransitioners] who find that ‘transition’ destroyed their lives. But I also talked about the ‘TERFs’, the women who resist, because I believe that transgender ideology destroys their lives, too,” Stern told Reduxx.

“When we started the conference, we didn’t have electricity because the workers were still trying to turn the power back on. And this is not the first time a venue where I was scheduled to speak was vandalized. So what I was talking about was happening in front of our eyes,” Stern continued.

“I’m so upset about that fire and the impact on the people living there. Those people who set the fire just didn’t care about human lives,” she added. “They knew that children were sleeping in this building, and the fire could have been much worse if the firemen didn’t come to stop it. Can you imagine? Some children could have died.”

Part of a much longer article from https://reduxx.info/france-trans-activists-set-fire-to-venue-in-attempt-to-sabotage-conference-critical-of-gender-ideology/

Monsters!🤬 The press is calling terrorists "activists?" Fuck a bunch of that.

Bloody hell

This is domestic terrorism surely?

I can not find one report about this other than the one from Reduxx, even though there are reports about how angry the TRAs are that a feminist is to bold as to assert her right to speak.

Astonishing.

French TRAs are batshit.

French coverage: https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/auvergne-rhone-alpes/rhone/lyon/venue-de-marguerite-stern-a-lyon-il-n-y-a-pas-de-feminisme-sans-les-femmes-trans-plusieurs-collectifs-appellent-a-manifester-contre-la-transphobie-3034226.html

Here are some more in French:
https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2024/09/19/a-lyon-tensions-autour-de-la-venue-de-la-militante-marguerite-stern-et-de-sa-conference-sur-les-derives-de-l-ideologie-trans_6324181_3224.html

https://www.lyonmag.com/article/138346/incendie-criminel-avant-la-venue-de-marguerite-stern-a-lyon-la-videosurveillance-de-l-issep-aurait-filme-un-suspect

if you search with the terms "Marguerite Stern" + Issep (the institute), you'll find more, but I don't want to post all of them here, as I do not know all the political affiliations of the sites or youtube channels. I don't know who is behind "Lyonmag" either, but it looks like a local yellow press newspaper.

The institute was founded by someone in LePen's family, Marion Maréchal-LePen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Mar%C3%A9chal

This is mentioned on reduxx but not in all of the newspaper articles, or maybe it's common knowledge in France.

However, if you look at the cancelling of speakers for example at universities, there is a reduced opportunity for critics to have any events. Rightwing parties can easily jump in the gap and offer a podium.
We don't know whether Marguerite Stern would have had other places in Lyon where she could have held her talk or conference. There is some information missing.

From the media coverage it seems the protesters focused more on Ms Stern's (misinterpreted) work than on the rightwing aspect. The connection is still problematic because it helps the narrative that GC equal rightwing and are thus to be shut down.

This is astonishing. Tras in France and Spain are incredibly violent .

I remember some of this, particularly destroying the mural, it was so cruelly meanspirited.
She is a genuinely brave woman and Im seriously concerned for her.

'Last April, when Stern was set to speak at a symposium in Nantes intended to raise awareness of the plight of Afghan and Iranian women, the event had to be postponed in response to violent threats made against her and the venue.
Stern has previously been ousted from her own organization in direct response to her concerns about transgender ideology. Les Collages Contre les Féminicides, a direct action campaign she launched in 2019, involved the creation of murals calling attention to violence against women and girls. In 2022, trans activists destroyed one such mural created in remembrance of the infant victims of shaken baby syndrome by an organization sympathetic to Stern, L’Amazone.

On International Women’s Day in 2021, Stern was pelted with eggs by trans activists in a coordinated and premeditated assault. She, along with members of L’Amazone and the Collective for the Abolition of Pornography and Prostitution (CAPP) had gathered to hold a demonstration at the Place de la République in Paris. The women soon found themselves swarmed and outnumbered by trans activists who called them “SWERFs,” meaning Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminists, and shouted: “No feminism without whores.”
In May, Stern and another women’s rights advocate, Dora Moutot, had death threats chanted at them by a crowd of trans activists outside of Assas University where they had been invited to speak about the book they wrote together.

Now they have a more right wing government things might be about to get worse, the TRA's might get arrested more but ultimately women will lose out.

"Conservative Senator Brunon Retailleau named interior minister

A conservative senator since 2004, Bruno Retailleau, 63, is known for his hard-right views and is the most senior figure from his Republicans (LR) party to enter Barnier's government.

He has also urged tougher policing on left-wing and environmental protesters and opposed Macron's push to add the right for women to pursue an abortion to the constitution."

I couldn't tell if France has a minister for women.

I remember some of this, particularly destroying the mural, it was so cruelly meanspirited.

Me too, the callousness of this shocked even me.

The Reduxx article about that earlier incident

reduxx.info/france-trans-activists-destroy-feminist-mural-to-infant-victims-of-abusive-brain-trauma/

I'm hoping this will be seen alongside Gisele's case - all those lovely family men raping an unconscious woman.

Maybe people will join the dots and realise 'Fuck, some (many?) men really do hate and despise women.'

I remember British TRAs setting off smoke bombs to terrorise women meeting just by Grenfell Tower, & only a couple of years after it.

But this is a step beyond. TRAs won’t be happy until they kill some women.

“No feminism without whores.”

😡, evil, gross bastards.

To put it crudely and has been said on many other threads, thanks to the so called "Left" complete capitulation to TRAs, the fact that this is a right wing college isn't the point. Other than to indicate how gutless and anti woman the left is.

But what the article does show is the real violence that women who assert the right of the female sex to talk about the reality of their lives framed by their sex.

And I really dont think we need to give the autorities or the gutless cowards who wont stand up for women's sex based rights are sort of "support" that their actions are maybe okay because the target was right wing.

I thought we had all got over that overt attempt to disguise what is basically male left terrorism against any woman who claims their autonomy.

If we did support that sort of arguement then we should be burning down the offices of the Telegraph and the Mail. Both of which as we know are some of the very few places that will give gender critical women a voice.

The real question as always is why is the left so aggressive about silencing women.

(I think the Reduxx article made all of this clear)

I think these quotes from the trans activists show how in line they are with TRAs in the UK and US.

"We fight these attacks against trans people all the time and everywhere. Marguerite Stern's positions are not trivial. Her speech is dangerous and above all, it kills. There were two transfeminicides this summer: that of Géraldine and Angelina" testifies Aurore*, in her twenties, activist from the Lyon Trans Solidarity Organization, present at the gathering.

Because since its publication on April 11, the book Transmania has been the subject of heated controversy. .. SOS Homophobia which filed a complaint against the two authors, recalling that “transphobia kills”.

"Marguerite Stern's positions are not scientific: for example puberty blockers are reversible, contrary to what she says. We cannot let the extreme right prevent us from existing, exploit our struggles. "There is no feminism without trans women"

Its only TRAs who call biological facts right wing. I think one reason they do that is to get knee jerk support, but also without this link to the right how are they going to concoct the notion that biological reality is reactionary and has to be opposed?

"There is no feminism without trans women"

Funny how we managed for decades before they decided they belonged with us.

"Her speech is dangerous and above all, it kills. There were two transfeminicides this summer"

We know why they really died. Men killed them. Yet they want to blame women, naturally. What woman would blame other women's beliefs for deadly male violence? I would call that quite conclusive evidence of who they really identify with and it's not women. They are flat out saying women can cause male violence.
If you want to identify as women while identifying with men, don't expect other women to accept you into the fold.

yep. given how completely mental some TRA's are on twitter they won't be happy until they have their equivalent of Barry Horne (one for the teenagers there)

"And I really dont think we need to give the autorities or the gutless cowards who wont stand up for women's sex based rights are sort of "support" that their actions are maybe okay because the target was right wing."
@IwantToRetire

No, of course they are not okay; I fully agree with you. Besides, I'm not for vigilantism.

I'm upset that it has come so far that there are now few places where women can speak about these topics, and some of them are rightwing institutions, who are seizing the opportunity. I'm equally disappointed about the progressive left and moderate democrats.
I realize the location is a minor playground in this topic, but it doesn't keep me from wishing there were more choices of allies for the GC.

I can't help but wonder what @Christinapple might have to say about TRA terrorism. I'm assuming the minimizing and whataboutery would be flying thick and fast.

Terrorists, not activists.
TRTs.

i think that somehow the blame would end up being put on the women having the meeting - it usually is 🤔