Trans activists fail to shut down women’s rights conference

JK Rowling has made an appearance at Europe’s largest annual women’s conference after trans activists failed to shut it down.

Just twelve hours before the ‘FiLiA’ conference was due to begin, the planned venue, Glasgow’s Platform, refused the women’s group access. FiLiA, part of the Women’s Liberation Movement, said trans activist group Glasgow Trans Rally had put “extraordinary pressure” on Platform to cancel the conference.

After lawyers cited the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s recent legal victory against Scottish Event Campus Ltd over an axed evangelistic rally, Platform backed down.

No cancellation

Joanna Cherry KC MP, who also addressed the conference, said: “I think it says something’s gone very wrong in Scotland’s civic space. Small groups of activists are now dictating who can speak and what can be discussed.

“The fight must go on to allow everyone to debate the issues freely without fear of being vilified and cancelled by a small minority.”

Around 70 protestors attempted to intimidate attendees outside the event.

Posting on X, Rowling criticised two councillors who “stood proudly beside protesters screaming” profanity at female attendees for ‘disgracing’ themselves.

Book launch

Last week, a book launch at the University of Edinburgh also went ahead despite more attempts at intimidation by trans activists.

‘Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader’, edited by Professors Alice Sullivan and Selina Todd, addresses the importance of biological sex from a range of perspectives, including medicine, law and literature. One of its essays is written by Kathleen Stock OBE, who was hounded out of her post at the University of Sussex by trans activists.

Before the event, the University and College Union promoted a planned protest, while the Staff-Student Solidarity Network claimed the book put forward views “that put trans people in real danger”.