The Terf Island Flag
Speak for yourself - Brighton
I love this flag. It wasn’t designed and created by a laborious committee decision. A woman just upped and did it herself. She designed it found a printer paid for it and flew it. It lifted my spirit just seeing it. There’s a skull and crossbones on the tall ship logo.
I read a few tweets from the women critical of the open mic stance at the Brighton SFW event. I also read Dr Clare Jane Jones’s blog unpicking the matter: https://janeclarejones.com/ It strikes me as a ‘their way or the highway’ situation. Too much of a focus on the doctrinal aspect of this fight we are engaged in at the expense of the social and experiential dimensions. We’re in a new era now. Maybe their methods of organising are no longer ‘all that’. Maybe they’re a little too stuck in history. I once read in a book on revolutionary movements - the Avant-Garde suddenly realises they are no longer the avant-garde and that the people they are aiming to influence are streets ahead. There are no iron certainties. What works in one situation won’t necessarily fit in another. We’ll see. I’m with KJK in regarding their criticisms as an insult to the women who spoke at the event and who shared their moving personal stories. There can’t be a movement if no one is moved. The speakers moved me and I think they moved a lot of people. Inevitably. To frighten people away from active involvement by planting anxieties about far-right groups trying to infiltrate is foolish. Were the slurs and sneers and justifications from these women sincere or were they tainted with envy? I don’t know. Karen Ingala Smith’s description of KJK as a “Poundland Marine Le Pen.” was a particularly catty sort of character assassination. And they certainly chose a peak moment to air their disapproval. (Though Ingala Smith’s saboteur comment has been a great humour generator.)
Any movement or happening attracts bad actors. I switch off as soon as I hear a hint of political agendas. Call me naive! Oh, you already did. I’m looking for a path that isn’t populated with undercover fascists. Good luck to me with that. Big Brother Big Boot is onto all of us
My takeaway from Brighton was the personal testimonies of the women. I couldn’t hear them on the day what with the noise of the gender priests with their chorus of TRANSWOMEN ARE WOMEN and NON-BINARY IS VALID. But I listened closely once they were on YT. Two of the women had me crying. Listen in. (and the extended social gathering in the Sussex Yeoman was a perfect end to the day)
This was the pub we gathered in, spilling onto the pavement of this quiet narrow street. There was a pub directly opposite too so when the Yeoman closed we bought drinks there. The weather was perfect for it.
