The trans mob keeps exposing its violent misogyny

Ahead of this weekend’s FiLiA conference in Brighton – the largest feminist conference in Europe – a group of trans activists took it upon themselves to trash the venue. The masked vandals smashed several windows and sprayed purple paint over the outside of the Brighton Centre. A peculiar slogan was stencilled on the door: ‘Feminism is the refusal to define a woman.’

This was the work of Bash Back, a self-described ‘trans-led direct-action group’. Claiming responsibility, Bash Back accused the FiLiA conference of playing host to ‘some of the most vicious transphobia’ in modern politics. A spokesperson went on to tell Scene magazine that those organising the conference were guilty of ‘vile and hateful rhetoric that… leads to the same kind of discriminatory violence that kills hundreds of trans people every year’.

To be clear, this accusation is an inversion of the truth. It might surprise the pro-trans contingent to learn that hardly any trans people are actually murdered in the UK at all – and none has ever been killed by a feminist. The overwhelming majority of such murders take place in Latin America and the Caribbean. Even these killings have less to do with ‘transphobia’ than the fact that the victims are primarily sex workers. Yet while FiLiA recognises sex work as inherently dangerous, the pro-trans brigade continues to hail prostitution as the height of liberation. ‘Sex work is work’ is a popular cry on trans-rights demos.

Over 2,400 guests attended the FiLiA conference last weekend. Since its inception in 2008 as Feminism in London, FiLiA has facilitated discussion on topics such as gendered violence, misogyny, racism and class. JK Rowling, who attended FiLiA previously as a speaker, brought attention to Bash Back’s act of vandalism by reposting journalist Julie Bindel’s photographs of the damaged venue. ‘Why can’t EVERYONE see this movement for what it is?’, Bindel exclaimed.

Trans activists were apparently not satisfied with defacing the venue. On the first day of the conference on Friday, they gathered outside to berate attendees and hold up placards with slogans like: ‘What feminist is (trans) exclusionary?’ Perhaps a feminist is someone who defends and champions women, rather than men who want to be women?

In response to the act of vandalism and subsequent intimidation, Brighton Pavillon’s Green MP, Siân Berry, chose not to condemn the perpetrators. Instead she blasted those who allowed the conference to go ahead in the first place. ‘Events that inflame division and create tension should be guarded against’, she tweeted, before rounding off the post with the statement: ‘The choice of Brighton was clearly provocative from organisers and the problems caused predictable.’

The level of victim-blaming here is shocking. According to Berry’s logic, it is the FiLiA feminists’ fault that trans zealots decided to deface Brighton Conference centre and stage an angry, shouty protest.

Indeed, if Berry really thinks the ‘problems caused’ in her constituency by the trans mob, such as vandalism and misogyny, are so ‘predictable’ then perhaps she should start trying to tackle them?

That won’t happen of course. Berry is the modern-day equivalent of Queen Victoria calling women’s suffrage ‘a mad and wicked folly’. Just like every other pro-trans lady with a platform, Berry is more than happy to berate her sisters for not wanting to share changing rooms, hospital wards and prisons with men. Presumably because she would be unaffected by the consequences of her luxury beliefs.

The FiLiA conference did go ahead in the end, despite the trans bigots’ attempts to shut it down. These vandals may have worn masks when defacing the venue, but they fully exposed their bigotry through their actions. These misogynists are a menace to women.

Georgina Mumford is a spiked intern.