Following the fuss on Friday, and a message I sent Conway Hall, I’ve had a response via EMail – they’ve also said much the same on Twitter.
My initial message was:
I was somewhat surprised to see your response to inquiries about hosting the upcoming RadFem2012 conference, suggesting that (In likely contravention of the Equality Act 2010) your non-discrimination policy does not extend to Transgendered folk.
I note that previously, you have acted against discrimination at events you host and seem happy to publicise this such as whan a radical Islamic group ran an event in 2009. Is your official policy that discrimination against Trans people is somehow a lesser problem than discrimination against women?
And the reply:
Thank you for all of your comments regarding the proposed RadFem 2012 event which has been booked at Conway Hall in July.
We are aware that there are strong feelings on the issue and recognise the conflict of opinion amongst the feminist and LGBT community as a result. We are in dialogue with both the organisers of RadFem 2012 and Camden LGBT forum in order to help resolve the issue.
As an organisation we do not have any actively exclusionary HR or lettings policies. This similarly applies to our status as a venue for hire.
As such we are currently seeking legal advice as to the status of the proposed event as it pertains to the Equalities Act (2010) and will provide an update on the matter in due course.
This doesn’t sound too helpful: Their position currently seems to be that if it’s legal, they’ll let it go ahead. I’ve mailed them back to check if that’s really the case.
You might tell Conway Hall about some of the statements by people in this “RadFem” movement about Trans women:
“They expect we’ll be shocked to see statistics about them being killed, and don’t realize, some of us wish they would ALL be dead.”
“There are no words to describe them. There are tiny parasitic wasps who paralyse small animals (spiders, caterpillars, etc.) and lay their eggs on them, so the animal is alive while being slowing eaten by the growing baby. But the wasps aren’t deliberately cruel. These men remind me of a deliberately female-hating version of that. They’ve prove what I’ve been saying for decades — they are more female-hating than even many het men. The character in Silence of the Lambs who skinned women to wear really seems more accurate all the time. ”
And ask them if they endorse these statements as being “against discrimination”.
Would they tolerate this kind of speech if it was directed at any other group – Jews say – no matter who uttered it?
I’ll pass that on, thanks – do you have URLs? (Feel free to mail the to me privately if you’d rather not link to them publicly)
Comments by Bev Jo at http://wewillnot.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/wtf-is-with-the-intersex-comments/
I think it’s at Gallus Mag’s that she suggests allying with the Fundies to finally solve the Trans problem.