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FiLiA’s Glasgow conference is going ahead despite an intimidation campaign
by Julie Bindel
Protesters at a trans rights rally in Glasgow earlier this year. Credit: Getty
Trans activists all too often act as the militia wing of the men’s rights movement. Their movement is perfectly designed to bully, harass, intimidate and silence feminists — or just any woman who dares to question male dominance.
An organisation called Glasgow Trans Rally demonstrated such an attitude this week, posting on social media about a conference in the city, and planned for Friday. The event was organised by the women’s rights group FiLiA, which advocates for female-only spaces, and was set to feature discussions on sex-based injustice and male violence.
Followers of Glasgow Trans Rally were encouraged to target the venue, harassing the organisers on social media and over the phone.
“This weekend, a transphobic ‘women’s rights’ conference will be held at [venue],” the Instagram post read. “Prominent transphobes such as Joanna Cherry and Julie Bindel will be speaking, amongst many many others. STAND WITH US in telling [the venue] that Glasgow DOES NOT ACCEPT THIS, and that they MUST DROP THE EVENT!”
Two days before the conference, the venue caved into pressure and informed FiLiA that the event was cancelled.
After putting the venue and the organisers through hell, legal advice was sought, and it was established that to cancel the event would risk a legal challenge. So, as per a statement put out on Thursday afternoon, FiLiA is going ahead, and the venue has ultimately not caved to the protestors.
It is interesting that these people seem to doubt that FiLiA is a “women’s rights” conference, instead describing it as simply against trans people. Speakers and delegates are coming from all over the world to share experiences of campaigning to end the global sex trade and the trafficking of children, femicide, and the abuse of black women by the police and military. There are women from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Australian Indigenous communities.
But these sadistic narcissists are desperate to shut the mouths of survivors of male violence, and prevent 1500 women from getting together in sisterhood and solidarity. There are women still steeped in trauma at being raped, or from losing custody of their children in the family courts to an abusive father.
As I reported from a previous FiLiA event, the lovely lot that picketed the event decided to bang on the windows and shout “Nazi scum!” while women inside spoke of being tortured and raped by police. They held signs reading, “Suck my dick you transphobic cunt” in their best attempt to be intersectional feminists.
The more these woman-hating trans activists lose, the worse they become. There are lots of women, particularly young ones, involved, but there have always been women happy to be poster girls for the patriarchy, because it earns them cookies in the short term. Gender ideology is nothing more or less than misogyny. And if the liberals can’t see that a baying mob trying to shut down a feminist event is, whether consciously or not, part of a men’s rights movement, they need to — belatedly — open their eyes.