Novara Media, October 2019
Politically energising moments characterised The World Transformed, a festival of ideas held alongside the Labour Party conference in Brighton last month. Many happened in meeting rooms, where people were galvanised around critical issues. But for me the most beautiful moment was one of protest and it took place on the streets.
As self-described feminist group Woman’s Place UK held an unofficial fringe meeting on Monday evening, having leafleted every entrance to conference to solicit attendees earlier in the day, around 200 peaceful and noisy protesters gathered outside. Founded two years ago in response to a government consultation on the Gender Recognition Act – a process which had the potential to improve rights for trans people in Britain – Woman’s Place UK has an explicitly transphobic agenda. Campaigners say the group presents a respectable front, while its ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’ (TERF) members relentlessly attempt to undermine trans rights.
Sophie Hemery 