Last night we decided to do a very quiet and peaceful action. We ended up having tomato ketchup thrown all over us, drinks thrown at us, threatened by bar staff and the police called to arrest us. I wondered how such a quiet thing would go. Here is how… 
The idea was to see reactions in a normal bar on truthful statements about the reality of sex versus the nefarious gender. We weren’t saying anything. We weren’t giving our views out loud. We just wondered what people would do if they looked at a quiet truth written on boards.
The first bar we sat at a table next to a middle aged man. We got a drink and sat chatting about stuff. We put 3 signs around us without saying anything. Some curious looks, some photos taken from a distance. Much as expected. Then a man came up to say he agreed with them.
The middle-aged man at the side of us got up and called us “disgusting” and “transphobes”. He was watching football. One sign is about fair sport for women. Another man came and chatted. He agreed too. But didn’t like me because of my action on Ched Evans in 2014. 🤷🏻♀️
It was all very reasonable and no bar staff seemed to care. We moved next door. Different crowd. A fella in a frock there and a confused woman feeling the non-binary feelz on the bar staff. We got a drink and sat under the big screen tv showing the football.
A few young men came up to say they agreed with us. One agreed about Sport but not the others which made him uncomfortable. He couldn’t say why. He was certainly thinking about why. This was our intention. To let people know it’s ok to say what you think is true.
The bar manager came over. No one at this point had voiced any objection. The man dressed as a woman had walked over and very close in a weird way, trying to intimidate I think but said nothing. The bar manager said we had to take the signs down as they were offensive.
A short time passed and not much was said but suddenly as we chatted and had almost forgotten the signs were there - a man ran up and covered the signs and the other two women with me in tomato ketchup. We jumped up in shock. He ran off.
I don’t know if it was the same man, I think it was, came back over as we sat trying to clean clothes a bit and recover ourselves. He threw a drink at us. And ran off again. At this point the police arrived. A group of women behind had been calling us bitches. It got loud.
The police asked us to go downstairs. They went to speak to the ones who had assaulted us. Clearly stories were invented on the spot. We were asked to leave by a manager who called us “disgusting bitches” even as my friend tried to clean her clothes.
Outside we were told that we were the aggressors. That we had thrown tomato ketchup. That we had thrown drinks. We were the ones covered in tomato ketchup and drinks. The woman covered in sauce clearly upset and trying to sort herself out in the street after an attack.
Eventually after refusing, very calmly to give my details as I’d done nothing wrong but also didn’t want to pursue action against the other party, who can be bothered really, we know this will happen again, I said if I’d done wrong they could arrest me arrest me.
They said I was being awkward - I said there were two choices since I wasn’t giving my details. Arrest me or let us walk away. They seemed unsure. We walked away.
A few silent signs telling a truth they can’t bear. That’s all it was.
Great evening. 🍅
A few silent signs telling a truth they can’t bear. That’s all it was.
Great evening. 🍅
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