‘Let Women Speak’ does not speak for women
LWS pose as feminists, but they don’t care about women’s rights. Their purpose is exclusion and spreading hate, and punching down on anyone who doesn’t fit their narrow definition of what a woman is – mainly trans women, a tiny minority (less than 0.2% of the population in Aberdeen, or 1 in 500 women).
What’s different about LWS?
All ‘trans-exclusionary radical (so-called) feminists’ are inherently patriarchal because they seek to restrict what being a woman means, which ultimately results in controlling women. But this lot are so vile they’ve even fallen out with fellow TERFs.
In 2018, Woman’s Place UK, a relatively moderate anti-trans group, cut ties with LWS leader, “Posie Parker” (Kellie-Jay Keen), after she made racist and Islamophobic statements online. More information here and here. She has appeared on GB News multiple times, been a guest on a fascist talk show popular with ‘men’s rights activists,’ associates with known neo-Nazis and Christian fundamentalists, and praised English nationalist Tommy Robinson. LWS events are frequently supported by far-right groups including Hearts of Oak, the Independent Nationalist Network, and Alpha Team Assemble (yes, really), and they didn’t complain when white supremacists performed Nazi salutes at their events in New Zealand, or when a speaker quoted Adolf Hitler. More information Keen’s Hope Not Hate Case File, here.
Maybe these are the kind of men Keen was thinking of when she advocated having armed men in women’s toilets to ‘protect’ women from trans people (yes, really). It seems even hating women isn’t enough to put Keen off, and she has stated that women who stand in her way will be “annihilated”.
Meanwhile, LWS sells merchandise featuring fascist and misogynist dog whistles, like custom ‘MAGA’ hats and t-shirts with ‘female’ written to resemble the Fanta logo (Coca-Cola developed Fanta as an alternative brand to sell in Nazi Germany).
Harassment and Violence
Perhaps worst of all, Parker fanned the flames of a racist and transphobic harassment campaign against trans woman Mridul Wadhwa, head of Edinburgh’s rape crisis centre, who has devoted her professional life to supporting female victims of sexual violence. Wadhwa received death threats and the centre’s staff had to waste enormous amounts of time dealing with the harassment, rather than doing their jobs helping women.
At their own events, LWS physically harass and provoke counter-protesters, to get social media content and spread more hate online. They claim to speak for the silent majority, but when Parker ran on an explicitly transphobic platform in the last election, she got so few votes she lost her deposit.
This isn’t just about trans women. Let Women Speak and their attempts to control what a woman is are a threat to all women. We’ve already heard of non-trans women, who don’t fit transphobic fascists’ idea of ‘femininity,’ being harassed and attacked in bathrooms.
On International Women’s Day, they’ve decided to stir up hate against less than 0.5% of the population, rather than doing something useful to challenge the real dangers women face, like discrimination and male violence.