Now @MForstater has taken the stage. She describes the "amazing" moment when @jk_rowling retweeted about her case. Her win in court has set a precedent in the row on gender #WomensRally
Now up, @HJoyceGender. She bemoans the legal regression in Ireland. "Children are lied to and it's law". She is struggling to hold back tears as she talks about rapists in women's prisons #WomensRally
"Only the foolish would consider taking on angry women. Especially Scottish, angry women". #WomensRally
And we're done. Lots of powerful speeches today. I'll hopefully get them up on my YouTube channel this evening. Subscribe at YouTube.com/gspellchecker to be notified. #WomensRally
A few quick thoughts:
📌 Crowd was at least double the size of the last protest I covered here
📌 Not a single counter-protestor
📌 No hate. No transphobia. Just women passionately defending rights for themselves and others (including trans people)
📌 Good-humoured #WomensRally
📼CLIP:
"The people they are getting advice from appear to be amateurs!"
Bad actors will try to make you believe the organised 'gender critical' movement is comprised mostly of bigoted, far-right blokes. It isn't. The campaigning is coming from mothers, sisters, grandmas and any woman that believes their rights are under attack.
Never forget: when women were taken from their homes by the police, had their electronic devices seized, clothes searched and held in a cell for an *accusation* that they *may have posted something mean on the internet*, this is how @PinkNews covered it.
I don't know a whole lot about Caroline Farrow except that she seems to be a staunch Catholic. I probably disagree with her on almost every 'spiritual' & political issue. However, if you can't uphold principles when it comes to those you don't like, then you don't have principles
I'm pro-police. It's an incredibly difficult, dangerous & thankless job. Armchair critics have zero concept of violent crime and the dark underbelly of society they deal with day to day. But so long as they continue to arrest for "offensive speech", public trust will be lost.
“We are all free to believe whatever we wish. What we are not free to do is compel others to believe the same thing, to silence those who disagree with us or to force others to deny reality"
“Human beings cannot change sex. It is not hateful to say that; in fact it is important in order to treat everyone fairly and safely. It shouldn’t take courage to say this, and no one should lose their job for doing so"
I'm in my home city of Manchester this afternoon. @StandingforXX is due to speak at 1pm. A sizeable counter-protest has already gathered. Fingers crossed for a peaceful afternoon
A number of men dressed in black with face coverings are embedded within the counter-protest.
Not sure where the gender critical contingent are going to set up and speak, given the Emmeline P
ankhurst statue appears to have been occupied
I'm at the #WPUKManchester event this evening. Looking forward to hearing from the speakers.
Sounds like a protest of undetermined size outside (I can hear them, but not see them). I'm not sure what they think is going to be said that is so egregious, but I'll let you know. #WPUKManchester
"High heels do not a woman make". The first speaker today talks about "passing" not being enough to have access to female only spaces. #WPUKManchester
55 mins into the Rogan/Nawaz conversation Nawaz fans the flames of conspiracy with the suicide of David Kelly. "He turned out dead. No one knows what happened to him... It's all weird... It's officially 'suicide' or whatever... who knows?"
The pathologist knows.
Now they are throwing Epstein and JFK into the "who knows?" category. This relies entirely on conspiracy theory and a rejection of documented facts. Some people confuse incredulity and rejection of anything official with scepticism. And they are not the same thing.
Much of it (so far) is great. Maajid is charismatic, intelligent and right about a lot of stuff. Which makes his Covid/election conspiracies all the more frustrating.
"I don't speak about the vaccines". This is just an outright lie. He's pumped out a stream of nonsense on the efficacy and safety of vaccines. And now he's trying to distance himself. Like the way he pretended his 'stolen election' derangement never happened