TRAging - Let Women Speak Glasgow, 05/02/23
Standing For Women, alternatively known as Let Women Speak, is a monthly female-centered speaking event held in London’s Hyde Park by Kellie-Jay Keen (alias Posie Parker). However, these events are not exclusive to London; she and her team often work to bring them to other parts of the United Kingdom, with this event taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.
Before
Let Women Speak Glasgow was announced in a now deleted YouTube video on 1st December 2022, and was set to be held on 5th February 2023 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM (though the end time was changed to 2:00 PM not long after). Closer to the date of the event, the location at which it would take place was revealed to be George Square, in the heart of the city.
Over the span of the two months leading up to the event, Scotland went through major gender troubles which made it to the mainstream media. On 21st January, just two weeks before the event was supposed to take place, two SNP politicians were photographed at the Rally for Trans Equality standing in front of a sign calling for decapitation of “TERFs” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). These photos sparked mass outrage, as well as a police probe into the incident.
The second of these happenings related to Adam Graham (known in the media as Isla Bryson), a transgender-identifying rapist who was initially to serve his sentence in the Cornton Vale prison for women. Though this decision was reversed and he was sent to a men’s prison, the widely-publicized incident is said to have left a stain on former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s career.
As the planned Let Women Speak event became known to more and more people, transgender rights advocates called for protests. The Cabaret Against Hate Speech would announce plans to protest on 18th January, and allegedly encouraged their followers to report Kellie-Jay Keen to the police.
The Cabaret would be joined by those planning to attend Scotiacon, a furry convention which would be held in Glasgow the same weekend as Let Women Speak. Their call to action would be reposted by Beth Douglas, a self-described “trans rights enjoyer” who is most well known for this tweet. This was in spite of Scotiacon officials hiring more security and advising attendees to be careful of Let Women Speak, even though transgender rights activists have historically been the instigators of violence at such events.
Closer to 5th February, Trans Radio UK shared the plans to protest, while West Scotland’s Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) branch posted a statement encouraging its members to attend. The Cabaret would also post about creating a “wellbeing space” with therapists at George Square, even though they were the ones who organized the protest and encouraged people to attend.
Unsurprisingly, an incitement to violence was made by a transactivist online in the weeks leading up to the event. On 18th January, Twitter user sky_traffic sarcastically posted about how he would “HATE it” if someone “hit p*sie p*rker and friends with their car”. Not long after, he would make another post continuing this incitement, feigning sadness at the idea of the “country's leading defenders of women and girls exploding like bin bags full of baked beans on your windshield”. A screenshot of these two posts was shared by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, garnering widespread attention, before he deleted his account.
On 3rd February, Police Scotland Air Unit informed that they would be deploying a drone to “provide the police commander with an overview and help keep those attending event safe”. Kellie-Jay Keen notified the following day that “hate crime officers” were being sent out to her event.
The transactivists took the liberty of putting posters up around George Square before Let Women Speak was supposed to begin. They accused the group of seeking to debate their existence, dignity, and survival, vowing to “SINK TERF ISLAND”.
During
Preparations for the day ahead began at 8:30 that morning, with a nearby webcam capturing police officers unloading metal barricades from a truck. They would wait for about two hours before setting them up, with the first protesters arriving about thirty minutes later, at 10:40 AM. Over the next hour, protestors and Let Women Speak attendees would arrive en masse - protestors closer to the camera, and attendees on the opposite side of the square, behind the central statue. All of this was in spite of protestors allegedly dressing as Let Women Speak’s stewards to guide would-be attendees away from the event.
Journalist Róisín Michaux recorded a walkthrough of the protester crowd while they were setting up. Featured at the beginning of the video is the “wellbeing center”, which is a table draped in a trans flag, as well as a set of speakers. At the end of the video are the IWW union members alongside a few protestors holding a banner which reads “AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL”. Someone else shared a picture of two protestors sitting at the base of a statue, under a sign declaring “MEDIC”.
Before Let Women Speak had a chance to begin, two women arriving at the event in a rickshaw were attacked by a protestor who lunged for one of their signs. Thankfully, police in the area backed her away before she was able to do more damage. As the rickshaw driver pedaled away, protestors shouted at the women inside, while the assailant pulled up her shirt to reveal her double mastectomy scars. Neither of the women were injured, though one of their signs was ripped. An alternate angle of the altercation is in this video. After the event, someone attempted to confront her, only to be given the middle finger.
The protestors, realizing they were stuck on their own side of the square, redirected their attention to karaoke and dancing. Let Women Speak got off to a fantastic start, with the first speaker of the day talking of autism in transgender-identifying children, as well as how she’d been called a fascist despite being left-wing. Music and cheering from the transactivists could at times be heard in the background of the livestream, but it was just that - background noise.
It should be addressed that in the background of this video, there was an older man holding a sign which read “DEFY THE GAYSTAPO”. He was confronted by one woman, and was also reported to police and made to leave the event. He appears to be referenced by the fifth speaker, who mentioned a banner which she “thought should not be here”.
The rest of Let Women Speak went along smoothly, save for some livestream difficulties, an attempted infiltration, and a strange man who was removed from the event. There was a total of 31 speeches which went on over two hours, until they were finally told to wrap up by police. Highlights of the event include Jean from Aberdeen, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who was told she couldn’t work for Rape Crisis Scotland due to her fear of men, a retired doctor who spoke out against the Gender Recognition Act, a woman who was imprisoned with men, and a woman who talked about same-sex care on behalf of her quadriplegic friend. And of course, nobody could forget this rousing song.
Turnout for both groups had been massive. Let Women Speak appeared to be smaller on the George Square webcam, but its numbers truly were into the hundreds. Protestors had numbered into the hundreds as well, though any of them wishing for mass furry panda-monium would have been sorely disappointed when only three turned up in their suits. As the event ended, everyone dispersed from the square over about an hour, and the Let Women Speak group commemorated the successful event at a private venue.
After
The phenomenal event was celebrated not only by those who had attended it, but the media as well. It received extensive coverage, from The Herald to the BBC, and the Post Millennial to the Daily Mail. It was written about in Spiked (which had also covered the furries’ plans of protest), Metro, Independent, and the Scottish Sun, which reported that two people had been arrested.
Radio Clyde News interviewed Beth Douglas on the side of the protest, who shared that he believed that Kellie-Jay Keen had a right to organize these types of events but that the transgender rights advocates also had the right to protest her. On the side of Let Women Speak, journalist Andy Ngô spoke with a gay man who said he was standing up for women after his mother had stood up for gay men.
Likely sad that their protest failed, some transactivists tried to claim that Let Women Speak had been “ratio’d by counter protesters”. This was in spite of video evidence that the women numbered in the hundreds. They also made an attempt to force team Max Dunbar, the man who’d been holding the “gaystapo” sign, with the women, even though his belief was clearly not the consensus.
Beth Douglas was suspended from the Green Party only days after the event for, among other things, “derogatory language” and “inflaming debate”.
Bits & Pieces
Nicola Sturgeon stepped down from her position as First Minister only a couple of weeks after Let Women Speak. It’s widely believed that her fumble over self-ID was what led to this.
Additional Links
Monochrome photography by Pippa (1 and 2). Command click and open images in a new tab to view them better.
A video uploaded by “Thoughtcrime”
Wings Over Scotland’s article on furries as well as a glance into the crowd Scotiacon is catering to