Not sure how I missed this thread before now but, like @ILikeDungs, I was there.
The women were, as usual, standing around politely listening to each other. There was a lady who struggled not to cry (and reduced many of the listeners to sniffs and moist eyes) as she described how she hadn't seen her grandchildren for two years after she'd raised concerns about a female grandchild being raised as a boy. A woman and her mother who talked brilliantly about enforcing single sex loos in schools, and another who talked about the harm caused by gender clinics doling out hormones on first appointments. A fabulous woman who talked about what fascism REALLY is, when she'd lost members of her own family to Nazi gas chambers. And a couple of men, one who just thanked LWS for allowing a different opinion to be heard, and another chap who shook as he described his mother's horror at the idea that men could now be allowed into women's refuges when she'd herself fled domestic violence.
As for the flags, there were mostly "Woman Adult Human Female" and "TERF Island" ones - the latter have been around for quite some time, it's not something that's come about due to recent events.
Everyone was friendly and supportive.
Of course, on the other side of the road were masked protestors screaming at us. Some of it was the usual nonsense of "There's more of us than you/Whose streets our streets" (walk down any street you like, we're not stopping you!) but it was really unpleasant and deliberately intended to be intimidating. The visual of women talking among themselves and a solid phalanx of protestors howling abuse was quite striking. That was on top of the men whom I saw with the protesters earlier, who slunk round the back of the LWS group to have a good look at what was going on, a sudden loss of sound which may or may not have been someone pulling the plug deliberately, and a woman in sub fusc who pushed forward to shout "Fuck you" before running away.
I'm no wilting violet, I'll happily give as good as I get and I've spent quite a lot of time in Oxford over the years and never felt unsafe. And yet when I had to walk back past the protesters shortly after the LWS event finished and everyone drifted off, I carried my attack alarm in my pocket. THAT'S how awful the protesters were. THAT'S how shitty they were to women who wanted to speak in public.
As for the preacher, he absolutely was standing with the protestors and right at the front. Maybe he'd got confused and thought the number of keffiyehs on display meant it was a pro-Palestine event but he was still supporting people who were screaming abuse at a women's rights event. He was at his stall later on and got short shrift when he asked us to support his cause, so I hope he understands the sort of people and attitudes he was lending credence to.