Julie Bindel: Targeted as "transphobic" despite years of work campaigning for human rights


In April I found myself hosting a charity event on behalf of a small, volunteer-run library in Canada. I was raising funds to replace damaged stock — books, posters, and other memorabilia from the first wave of feminism that the organisers had lovingly curated to make a display for those interested in the issue of women’s liberation and the history of radicalism.

The venue had been damaged not by anti-feminist bigots such as men’s rights activists, but by the new wave of so-called “radicals” who are in fact anything but. Transgender activists and their allies had stormed the opening night of the library, located in a small artists’ studio that the collective had raised money to rent, shouted abuse and threats at both the organisers and the crowd that had come to celebrate this new venue, accusing them of excluding “trans women, sex workers, and non-binary people”. They objected to some of the feminist texts in there, such as classics from the 1970s, saying they were “trans-phobic”.

Red wine was thrown on the books, posters were torn down, and the women who had come for what they thought would be a pleasant evening of chat, laughter, and the requisite warm white wine were taken aback at being the target of a mob.

The protesters handed out a pamphlet that said: “This library is run by women who hate other women.” One ripped down a poster while another set off the fire alarm, at which point the police arrived.

It would be easy to dismiss this incident as a one-off, perpetuated by bored attention-seekers who no one takes any real notice of. But unfortunately this is not the case.

Despite being a feminist and human rights campaigner all my adult life, for the past 13 years I have been targeted by baying mobs, both in the UK and elsewhere, who accuse me of being a “bigot”, “fascist”, “as bad as Hitler”, and various other horrendous slurs against my character. Why? Because I dared to write an opinion piece in a liberal newspaper in which I complained about a man who identified as a woman claiming that he was entitled to counsel rape victims. I have been “no-platformed”  from events at which I was due to speak about rape and child sexual abuse, and prevented from lecturing students on violence against women, despite being invited by feminist societies.

Other feminist allies and progressives, such as the redoubtable Maryam Namazie, have been no-platformed and pilloried for pointing out that religious fundamentalism is harmful to women, and for daring to challenge the cultural relativists who support the “right” of women to be covered from head to toe in the name of “modesty”.