A group of activists is campaigning to ban Germaine Greer – one of the founders of modern feminism – from speaking at an event on International Women’s Day.
They are heaping pressure on organisers in Brighton, probably the most famously left-leaning and LGBT-friendly city in England, to pull the event.
Some 16,000 people have signed a petition decrying the author of The Female Eunuch as “transphobic” for her view that transgender people who change their identities, or even have surgery, cannot truly become women.
She has been booked to address crowds at the Brighton Dome theatre at midday tomorrow to celebrate the empowerment of women and hail the rise of “ecofeminism”.
The petition says:
Greer has a big presence in the feminist movement, but her views on trans women have no place during this event. Greer incites hate speech and violence against trans people with her words and giving her a platform at such an event is an insult to all trans people.
Brighton & Hove City Council has attached their name to Trans Pride, as a proud supporter of trans rights. It is hurtful that the City Council’s property The Brighton Dome would therefore support a woman that has such hateful views towards trans people that directly harm and stigmatise us further.
We therefore demand that she be uninvited from speaking at the event.
They deny that removing her from the event is an affront to her free speech.
The petition graciously acknowledges that Greer made a “valuable contribution to the feminist movement” in the past but says her views are now “a disgrace”.
Greer has come under fire for the community for refusing to accept that trans people can fully transition into women, saying “trans women [aren’t] ‘real’ women” and “just because you lop off your penis…it doesn’t make you a woman”.
Despite the vehemence of the protest, organisers have said they have no intention of altering the event.
A spokesman for the venue said they were “open to challenge and provocation” from Greer, and that letting her speak is “a better way to effect change than the concept of no-platforming”.
According to the venue’s website, most of the tickets for the event have now been sold.
Greer has been dogged by controversy before. In November 2015 students at Cardiff University tried to get her pulled from a speaking event in one of the first high-profile examples of a string of “no-platforming” attempts.
Feminists were also riled in December when Greer won third place on a “female power” list compiled by the BBC, two spots behind winner Margaret Thatcher.
