On the evening of Saturday 12th November, several LWD sisters attended the premiere of Reality Matters’ new documentary, Adult Human Female.
The evening, hosted by WPUK at Conway Hall, London was a sell out and there was a lively panel discussion with contributions from the floor afterwards.
The film charts the trajectory of trans ideology through our institutions over the last 10 years or so, drawing on in depth interviews with some of the main players in the movement to challenge it, interspersed with montages of news and social media items, some of the more embarrassing moments from our political leaders and location footage from various events and protests.
The interviews are divided broadly into subject areas:
Gender identity theory
LWD’s own Louise Irvine and Shereen Benjamin speaking eloquently about the medical background to sex and gender, and the impact of the ideology in academia and unions respectively.
Prisons and criminal records
Rebekah Wershbale of KPSS and Jo Phoenix talked about the plight of female prisoners affected by MoJ policy of housing male prisoners in the female estate, and the shocking stats on sex-offending records among male trans prisoners. Professor Phoenix also spoke to her experience with the Open University and setting up the Gender Critical Academia Network, echoing Shereen’s experiences at Edinburgh University.
Stonewall
Simon Edge explained how decisions made by Stonewall UK had been instrumental in facilitating the take-up of trans inclusive policies by institutions who use them as diversity consultants.
Specialist services
Shonagh Dillon, Karen Ingala Smith and Joan Smith spoke movingly about the need for female-only spaces and services to recover from male violence induced trauma and Jane Clare Jones recounted the story of SarahSurvivor, the woman suing Survivor Network over their failure to provide a female only counselling group.
GRA Reform and the Scottish Government
Lisa Mackenzie of MurrayBlackburnMackenzie talked about the situation in Scotland where the Government looks to be on the brink of introducing self-declaration for the purposes of the Gender Recognition Act.
Lesbian dating
Lucy Masoud gave a powerful account of the problems and harassment faced by female firefighters before they were able to secure single sex sleeping and changing facilities, and she and Julie Bindel covered the impact of trans inclusion on the lesbian dating scene.
Poetry and more
Slam poet Aja talked about her experiences as a young lesbian thinking that the fight for women’s rights had been won and also contributed one of her poetry performances, which got one of several rounds of applause from the packed hall.
Jane Clare Jones rounded off on a defiant note, warning that women are only prepared to be accommodating up to a point after which we won’t budge.
Panel discussion
The film makers and some of the cast members then took questions and contributions from the audience.
While some audience members felt that it was important to hold such events for solidarity and to allow people with gender critical views to come together and feel seen and supported, the question was also raised of how to engage the people in positions of influence who need to be won over.
The film makers expressed hope that the film will be clipped and shared widely with supporters using it as a resource to inform e.g., politicians, local authorities, boards of governors etc.
Many of the panel were Labour members and ex members and while there was a sense of frustration and disappointment with the performance of the Labour Party and the other progressive parties on this issue, as Joan Smith said, although they don’t answer, she will continue to write to Keir Starmer, Sadiq Khan, and other Labour big hitters, because what else is there to do?
The film demonstrated the range of expertise, passion, commitment, and work that has been done and continues to be done to push back against the worst excesses of the ideology, which should certainly be acknowledged and celebrated.
Where to watch
Adult Human Female will be available online at 5pm on the 1st of December on Vimeo, and everyone is encouraged to watch, enjoy, and share as widely as possible – whether in your social media networks, with friends and family or as suggested, with your MP school boards etc. Reality Matters have produced a great documentary and valuable resource for all who wish would oppose the negative impacts of trans policies, wherever they may appear.
Photo credit: Pam Isherwood, Reality Matters
