We have had enough of so called feminists using women as a shield for their bigotry

6 min readJan 14, 2021

If you don’t fight for liberal values, our society won’t remain liberal for much longer.

Letter sent about concerns regarding Rosie Duffield’s involvement with a public event empowering women (50:50 Parliament).

The definition of transphobia can be read here.

We are writing to you to express concern regarding Rosie’s Duffield presence at the next 50:50 Parliament event. You tweeted on the 10th of January 2021 that “50:50 is an intersectional campaign helping ALL women get selected & elected.” and yet you are platforming someone that profoundly disagrees with what 50:50 Parliament stands for.

The fourteenth Dalai Lama, once said: “It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act.” Some ways to be a good activist are relatively simple and easy, while others require more time, energy, and commitment. Being an activist is more than being sympathetic towards those who experience discrimination. It is more than simply believing in equality. Being an activist means being willing to act with and for others in pursuit of ending oppression and creating equality.

The above is particularly true of the fight for an inclusive feminism. A feminism that does not sexually shame women and taunt their physical appearances. A feminism that does not use personal experience of violence to pick a convenient group of outsiders to punish, a group even more marginalised and vulnerable than themselves.

A feminism that advocates an unworkable suggestion that public facilities shall be “sex assigned at birth”, given that it’s impossible to know the form of someone else’s genitals while using private stalls in a public toilet, is no feminism at all.

What those welcoming such pronouncements fail to see is that enacting this policy could mean all women have to carry ID confirming sex at birth, all women who weren’t immediately readable as feminine by current cultural norms might be challenged, and trans men would be expected to use women’s toilets. Trans men would also, obviously, be challenged on attempting to use public toilets because they look like the men that they are. It isn’t a stretch to conclude that trans exclusionary “feminist” fanatics use biology only when it’s convenient and just do not want trans women anywhere near them, unless they “pass” as women. Again, womanhood based on looks and physical appearance.

Because of the bigotry propagated by the likes of Rosie Duffield, more than a half of trans people have avoided public toilets in the last year because they feared confrontations. More than a third have avoided drinking or eating so that they did not need to use the public toilets in the last year. And 8% report having a kidney or urinary tract infection, or another kidney-related medical issue, from avoiding public toilets in the last year. Hate crimes are also rising, two in five trans people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months. It rises up to half of them for younger trans. More than a third of trans people had attempted suicide at least once, and almost 90% have thought about it once.

Is this what inclusive, kind, and powerful feminism looks like?

Trans women are ordinary people trying to live their lives authentically in a way that brings them peace; they are NOT “perverted men in dresses” determined to destroy feminism, force lesbians to have sex with them and prey on little girls in changing rooms as transphobic “feminists” like to portray. I am not suggesting Rosie Duffield made personally those allegations, but she supports notorious transphobes pushing their agenda through those subterfuge and scaremongering techniques.

We have all been on the receiving end of abuse; been harassed, smeared and bullied by ‘gender critical’ people online sharing the same views as Rosie Duffield. A feminism that leads women to pile on abuse on other women is not feminism. We are concerned that her presence will legitimize those views and behaviours creating an unsafe and unwelcome environment while we want it to be an empowering one for ALL women.

With that in mind, how are women like Rosie Duffield helpful to other women? How do their actions help us fight the cliché of being hysterical/irrational? Would 50:50 Parliament platform women known for other forms of bigotry such as racism or anti-Semitism? If not, then is 50:50 Parliament LGBTQ+ friendly in name only?

We request that you reconsider the inclusion of Rosie Duffield in this and all future 50:50 parliament events.

Sources

Sincerely,

Note that the following signatories are signing this letter in a personal capacity only.

Cllr Alexandrine Kantor
Diversity Officer — Oxford East Liberal Democrats
Executive Member of South Central Liberal Democrats
Representative on the Liberal Democrats English Council.

Dipa Vaya
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Diversity Officer — 50:50 Parliament

Jasmine Joséphine Sakura-Rose
Diversity Ambassador — 50:50 Parliament
Membership Secretary — LGBT+ Liberal Democrats

Jennie Rigg
Member of the Liberal Democrats Federal Conference Committee
Executive member and former chair — LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Executive Member of Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats

April Preston
Member of the Liberal Democrats Federal Board
Liberal Democrats Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Janey Little
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Women’s Representative — Young Liberals

Caron Lindsay
Member of the Liberal Democrats Federal Board
Executive member — LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Equalities Spokesperson — Scottish Liberal Democrats
Editor in chief — Libdem Voice

Charley Hasted
Vice chair — LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Executive member — Lambeth Liberal Democrats
Member of Stonewall Trans advisory group
Former Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Eltham 2019 and Swansea East 2017

Katharine Macy
Ordinary Member of the Liberal Democrat Disabled Association
Accessibility, Diversity and Standards officer — Young Liberals
Diversity officer — York Liberal Democrats
Executive member of the Liberal Democrats English Council

Nukey Proctor
Vice-Chair — (Urban) West Midlands Liberal Democrats
Treasurer — Coventry Liberal Democrats
Trustee — Warwickshire Pride

Lucy Tonge
Executive Member of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats
Disabled Representative — Young Liberals

Jessica Lee
Member of the Liberal Democrats
BAME officer — Young Liberals

Rebecca Procter
Chair — Nottingham Liberal Democrats
Executive Member of East Midlands Liberal Democrats
Executive member of the Liberal Democrats English Council

Emma Walker
Member of the Liberal Democrats

Christina Morgan-Danvers
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats Prospective Parliamentary Candidate

Leena Sarah Farhat
Diversity officer — Wales Liberal Democrats
Co-campaigns officer — Welsh Young Liberals
Candidate for Clwyd South

Cllr Katherine Tyson
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Constituency Chair — Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrats

Catriona McDougall
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Finance officer — Young Liberals

Meredith Fuller
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Diversity officer — Scottish Young Liberals

Cass Macdonald
Member of the Liberal Democrats

Trudi Hancock
Member of the Welsh Liberal Democrats

Elizabeth Morgan-Danvers
Member of the Liberal Democrats

Katy Montgomerie
Feminist and LGBT rights advocate

Sakeena Sanders
Youth Officer —Ealing Liberal Democrats

Kobe Bibbon
Member of the Liberal Democrats
Trans Representative — Young Liberals

We have had enough of so called feminists using women as a shield for their bigotry

Letter sent about concerns regarding Rosie Duffield’s involvement with a public event empowering women (50:50 Parliament).

Written by Alexandrine Kántor CEng MIET