Trans activists behind campaign of violence against women, Rishi Sunak warned
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Women’s rights campaigners have written to the Prime Minister to ask him to take action against an “escalating campaign of violence and intimidation” by trans rights activists.
The letter, signed by more than 10,000 people, said women were increasingly being threatened with “social ostracism” simply for arguing that they have a right to single-sex spaces.
They called on Rishi Sunak to commission a review of the impact of “extreme trans activism” on women’s rights.
And they urged the Government to ensure the police properly protect gender-critical activists, with one campaigner saying she wanted action before a woman was killed.
Earlier in September, gender-critical women were hounded by trans rights activists after they left a public meeting in Manchester.
The letter, organised by the group Sex Matters, was signed by philosophy professor Kathleen Stock, writer Graham Linehan, actor James Dreyfus, swimmer Sharron Davies, broadcaster Jenni Murray and women’s rights campaigner Nimco Ali.
Shouted down and intimidated
It said: “We ask you to take urgent action to halt an escalating campaign of violence and intimidation against women in the name of ‘trans rights’.
“Women are being threatened with social ostracism, loss of livelihood and physical violence; shouted down and intimidated at public events; and even subjected to physical violence – all for insisting on their freedom of belief and freedom of expression, and calling for existing sex-based legal protections to be upheld.
“We urge your government to issue a call for evidence and to commission a rapid review on the impact of extreme trans activism on women’s rights, as it has done with other emerging threats to civil liberties and the democratic order.
“This will enable you to identify the specific actions that must be taken by the police, Crown Prosecution Service, courts and prisons to ensure that women’s rights are upheld.”
Last week, two senior members of Sex Matters – Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce – held a meeting at the People’s History Museum in Manchester.
But as they left they were subject to violence and abuse by a trans activist crowd.
In August, a violent criminal was acquitted on charges of inciting violence against women, despite video evidence.
At a Trans+Pride rally in London on July 8, Sarah Jane (formerly Alan) Baker, who served 30 years in prison for kidnapping, torture and attempted murder, told the crowd: “If you see a Terf [trans-exclusionary radical feminist], punch them in the f------ face”. But a magistrate decided the comments were a joke, and Baker was let off.
Show their true colours
Ms Joyce said: “It is good to see these horrific people protesting because it forces them to show their true colours.
“But I don’t want to see a woman killed. These people want us off the streets but we are not going to go.”
The letter said: “Men who harass women under the banner of trans activism do not restrict themselves to screaming abuse at women’s rallies: they wave signs with slogans such as ‘Decapitate Terfs’ and ‘Kill JK Rowling’. And on occasion they commit physical assault.
“If she responds by explaining why it is important to retain protections for women and girls, she may be reported to her employer and often to the police. Shockingly, their powers of investigation are often then subverted to become tools of misogynistic abuse and coercion of women.”
It concluded: “We call on you, prime minister, to lead the fightback. We urge you to condemn the violence and intimidation against gender-critical women, to commit to addressing it and to open a call for evidence.”
