Today I speak as a representative of Liverpool ReSisters.
I speak as a representative of the female sex.
I speak as an ordinary woman.
The purpose of today’s action is to call women everywhere, to speak out, to rise up, and to demand they are heard.
The loss of our sex-based rights will set us back as a country and as a civilisation for generations. We cannot allow this to take place.
We live in a democracy and our politicians and leaders are in our employ. We must demand our rights are secured. We must demand they listen to our concerns.
This won’t necessarily be easy.
This year, we are privileged to celebrate 100 years of suffrage in the UK.
Our foremothers, our ancestors, our grandmothers and great grandmothers lived in a world that was barely recognisable to the comforts and rights we too easily take for granted today.
However. These rights and comforts must be guarded with fierceness and determination. We must no longer be complacent.
The change in law to “self-ID” will gradually and insidiously change our language and our interpretation of the world around us. The word woman will no longer have any grounding in reality. Biological facts are becoming purposefully obscured by using different, more nebulous terms.
Women and girls must be protected in law and in action. These protections must be upheld in every arena of public life.
We are all affected. We are all being targeted. We must set aside any ideological differences, and we must focus on these basic, inalienable human rights that all women and all girls deserve.
It is time to stand up. It is time to speak out. It is time to act.
Join us.
Speech Given 29th September 2018 – Manchester
I am an ordinary woman. I live an ordinary life, with ordinary concerns.
Here and now, in 2018, ordinary women like you and me are on the verge of losing our rights – the rights to same sex provision, to privacy, dignity and equality.
The risks are real. The change in law is imminent.
The impact of Self-ID will allow any man to access women-only spaces simply on his say-so. No checks and balances, no physical or medical treatments, no changes to his appearance.
Self-ID means our daughters may be next to a man when she changes for swimming.
Self-ID means our mother’s request for a female carer could result in a male providing intimate care instead.
Women don’t have penises. This is not hate speech, it is not transphobia; it is a simple statement of biological fact.
Yet there are people in government and positions of power who accuse us ordinary people of being hateful for standing by these words.
Self-ID erodes vital safeguarding principles by preventing women and children from listening to their feelings of discomfort, which leads them to question their own instincts. These instincts help keep our daughters safe, and help protect all of us from harm when we are in difficult situations.
There are very real and pressing safeguarding concerns around Self-ID.
All of us have a responsibility as citizens and residents of this city, this region, and this country to challenge any person or group that calls for a weakening of safeguarding frameworks.
TRANSWOMEN ARE NOT WOMEN.
To say otherwise is a lie. We all know it’s a lie!
You may think I am being unkind to speak so boldly. But, my friends, IT IS TIME TO SPEAK BOLDLY.
The time for politeness is past. The time for patience is waning. It is now time for direct action. It is time for sit-ins, it is time for marches, it is time to ACT.
The purpose for our direct actions is to create tension and raise consciousness. It is to create a mood for discussion and negotiation.
For too long, the repeated refrain has been “no debate”. This can no longer be borne! We live in a democracy! Freedom to discuss and debate is an essential ingredient for all other freedoms!
We must now dramatise this issue, we must now force the confrontation, because WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE UNDER THREAT AND WE CANNOT BE IGNORED!
We must RISE from the BONDAGE of myths and half-truths!
We ALL must become the nonviolent motivators of society who will help all citizens rise from the dark depths of sexism and misogyny to the majestic heights of understanding and equal human kindness.
The purpose of direct action is to create a situation that forces the door open to negotiation. We must be able to SPEAK! We must be able to DISCUSS! Without such an environment, fear and silence will grow until the comfort and privileges that we now enjoy will be but a memory for our children and grandchildren – for our daughters and granddaughters.
The loss of sex-based rights and safeguarding for women and children isn’t coming from a fringe element, or those embroiled in online confrontation: it is from the moderates, from our leaders who capitulate to the dogma, who are using ordinary women in this country as a SHIELD for their COWARDICE. They KNOW women will suffer when Self ID becomes law, and they do NOTHING. They KNOW children are being put at risk, and they keep their eyes and ears closed!
Too many politicians have said behind closed doors, “I agree with you, this is a huge problem, but I am too scared to speak.”
This lukewarm acceptance of our cause is more harmful than outright denial – because WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY!
MOST PEOPLE AGREE WITH US!
This is common sense! Women are women, and men are men, and this material reality cannot be altered.
Up until now, women of the UK have believed the idea that equality means what it says, and that we have achieved it, more or less.
But it is obvious to me that this is wrong. Those in power, those men who deign to give us our so-called rights, look at female equality, at women’s suffrage, as a loose expression for improvement, at some point, in the far future, perhaps.
These men in power have only sought to make this gap less obvious and less painful for women in general, but now the gloves are off. Now the veil is being lifted from our eyes, and now we see.
Women’s rights have always been fought for, inch by painstaking inch. We have achieved much, this is true, but it is unravelling before our very eyes, and we CANNOT ALLOW THIS TO CONTINUE ANY FURTHER.
I call upon you all, here and now, to SPEAK UP. Defend your rights, before they disappear before your very eyes.
MAKE A STAND, for yourself, for your children, and for generations to come.
@ManFRIDAY_