Thread by @SpeakUp4WomenNZ

Tweeting live from Feminism2020 Auckland:

Ani: What is at the core of the negative reactions to you?
Meghan: its unfortunate because there could be dialogue between GC feminists and Trans activists but nobody will come and debate me which is frustrating.

Meghan: to be totally honest its because a lot of their arguments wont stand up to being challenged.

Meghan: its frustrating that people who read about me online, if they had a 1 on 1 conversation theyd end up agreeing with most of what I say. Because its really pretty basic.

Meghan: I started to become a feminist at an early age at school. I dont identify as a radical feminist. The women I have been inspired by and shaped my politics are 2nd wave feminists. I'd rather not talk about labels. Id like to not be put in a category.

Meghan:I dont want to be limited to a specific ideology. When you get attached to a narrow ideology you stop being able to think critically.

Ani: how do you respond to leftists calling you a right wing bigot?
Meghan: it doesnt make sense to call me right wing when all my ideology belongs on the left, like free healthcare and housing.

Meghan:I was one of those leftists who never engaged with others who werent left. As Ive grown and matured I learned people are a lot more nuanced than that. People dont fall into just left or right.

Meghan: its not a good idea to get people onside to call people hateful bigots. No one thinks they're a hateful bigot.

Ani: there's been a battle here with freespeech and hatespeech. With hatespeech someone has to decide what that is.
Meghan: freespeech to Canadians on the left seems to be a trigger word. And they think it has to be "all great".

Meghan:If other peoples freespeech isnt protected how is it yours will be protected too?

Meghan: academics took the concept of gender and conflated it with sex. In Canada legislation was passed very quickly and with relatively little push back.

Meghan: it feels too late in Canada and its really great to see women pushing back in New Zealand and the UK. Canadians are so polite. We are a good example of what can happen.

Meghan: Media in Canada will talk about me and not too me. Its not fair coverage at all.

Meghan: Like what happened at Toronto Public Library and long time journalist interviewed the Chief Librarian, bullying her through the whole interview. The way she was treated by media/activists has been terrible. Accusing her of facism even though she had no position on this.

Ani: with Bill C16 which is similar to a bill being looked at here... what are some of the consequences of it for women...

Meghan: Violent crimes are now recorded by gender, which is troubling for a number of reasons. Woman on woman violent crime... where one is a man.
Funding for shelters is based on statistics so this skews those.

Meghan: men are being transferred to female prisons there are a number of assaults happening...
These were by men who have had no surgeries.
No one cares about these women.
Women who are already coming from poverty, drug addiction, mental illness. No one is paying attention.

Ani: is there any progress being made by feminists there?
Meghan: yes, we had an event where the venue pulled out 2 days before the event... we ended up having it at the pan pacific hotel. It was great. People are really interested in having these conversations.

Meghan:The protests and media covering has helped us. Before no one wanted to have these conversations.

Meghan: Jessica Yaniv!s case really got women angry. It highlighted what can happen. As horrible as it was. People were shocked and upset.

Ani: Mentioning Vanvouver Rape Relief.
Meghan: They have been attacked by trans activists for years and years, dead animals stuffed through mail boxes, die terfs graffiti on the builsing. All because they wanted female counsellors.
They are constantly accused of trabsphobia.

Ani: where else overseas have you been speaking? You spoken in other parliaments.
Meghan: yes I was so impressed by women in Scotland, in the UK. They are so brave, organised, lobbying for more than a year before they even went public. They already had people, politicians onside.

Meghan: In Canada there are lots of places I can't go because we're so progressive. Women are getting fired over this. The only way to address it is for more women to speak out.
They cant fire us all.

Meghan: We're not being transphobic. We are not trying to get women who identify as men out of these spaces. Its just men.
If they want to say we're phobic of anything I guess they could say we're man phobic even though that's not really true either.

Meghan: it's not a fair way to engage in debate by saying you will commit suicide. And its not true. The people who do this the most is actually men.
And saying GC women cause suicides is a really gross thing to do.

Meghan: people say I should be nicer, but I'm just telling the truth. I'm not yelling or threatening people. Or standing outside events with pictures of guillotines.
Do they mean I should respect pronouns?

Ani: what about the people who are often forgotten about... transmen. Its more often the debate is about transwomen...
Meghan: young women who transition do it for different reasons.
Most of them are young lesbians or girls who dont want to be objectified its really troubling.

Meghan: a lot of them find out about it online. There are a lot of detransitioners. A lot are impacted for life. They're being sold this horrible lie that their problems will be solved. And its not true. Being told they can change sex. Its not true. Its sad and cruel.

Ani: seems to be a rapid adoption of gender identity issues in younger and younger children...
Meghan: its like feminists thought we got the message across in the 70s & 80s. You dont have to play with dolls or conform to gender stereotypes and we're having to go back to it again.

Ani: what do you think happened between 2nd and 3rd wave feminism? Where did it go off the rails?
Meghan: well people stopped reading books... everything they're reading in "gender" studies is post 90s. They dont read about suffragettes or 2nd wave feminists.

Meghan: suffragettes were incarated and had their children taken from them over the vote.
People seem really spoiled. They dont have any connection to women who were really marginalised. Throughout the world a lot of women suffer day to day. They have no concept of that.

Meghan: its become really unpopular to identify to other women. They dont see women as oppressed anymore.
Identity politics has really split us.
Everyone thinks they're special and different. Pronouns make them seem more important.

Meghan: Alot of people thought gender was where I became unpopular. But they already didnt like me. (Laughs). Sex posiitve feminists especially.
This is much worse though and I'm really not sure why except they're such a vocal minority with a lot of power in the media.

Ani: femisists that inspired you?
Meghan: women in vancouver who have exited the sex trade and talked to me about the Nordic model and work in the Vancouver Rape Relief... Julie Bindel, Moran, Janice Raymond, Germaine Greer... so many others...

Meghan: I am really positive about the future. People are starting to wake up to it. I think people are going to look back on this all and feel embarrased.

Ani: lastly what do you feel about New Zealand?
Meghan: (laughs) I love it.