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Aggressive protests like that in Brighton mean the real causes of transphobia go unaddressed
Transgender campaigner DEBBIE HAYTON reflects on the consequences of trying to shut down meetings like the WPUK's recent unofficial Labour conference fringe
Activists besiege the Women's Place is At Conference unofficial Labour Party fringe meeting held by A Woman's Place UK

“WE had women arriving through the crush in tears. One woman had liquid thrown at her as she tried to enter. Even the men who attended were shocked at the scale of the harassment because they’re not normally subject to this.”

Those were the words of a WPUK spokeswoman, reported in this newspaper. Shockingly, the context was a meeting to discuss women’s rights on the fringe of the Labour Party conference.

How on earth did we get here: to a place where women meeting to discuss sex-based rights and the trafficking of women and girls are accused of hate speech and denounced as “TERFs?” TERF stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist,” but it has become a dreadful slur — akin to bitch or whore.

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