Police called to protect anti-trans activists from friendly protesters ‘waving and smiling’
Nottingham Against Transphobia flag (Credit: Nottingham Against Transphobia)
An anti-trans activist has called for police to protect people at a film screening – from cheering and clapping.
Adult Human Female is a documentary which claims to be “in defence of women’s rights” and was created by “Reality Matters productions”.
Screenings of the film have been taking place in various cities across the UK and, on Sunday (27 November), the film was set to be shown at Sherwood Methodist Church in Nottingham. A small group of trans people and allies gathered outside the venue to protest the screening.
The event was cancelled by the church, which is LGBTQ+ inclusive, before the film could be shown, since it was unaware of its content.
The church told PinkNews it was told the film was about women’s rights and domestic violence, and axed the event when it learned its actual content.
A statement from local group Nottingham Against Transphobia thanked the church for its swift action against the “clearly very transphobic” film and said around 80 people attended the protest.
Adult Human Female‘s director Deirdre O’Neill and Michael Wayne, who is also a teacher at Brunel University London, said: “This film… aligns itself on the side of people fighting power, really fighting power, as opposed to those who claim to be in a long line of progressive civil rights movements but who act suspiciously like a men’s rights movement.”
Contributors to the film, which claims to be “the first UK documentary feature to look at the clash between women’s rights and trans ideology”, include Simon Edge – who wrote an entire book comparing those who support trans rights to Flat Earthers – and Julie Bindel, who once wrote trans women go to “gender reassignment clinics to have their breasts sliced off and a penis made out of their beer bellies”.
Trans folk and their allies gathered outside the church to protest the event by chanting, clapping and waving flags.
But anti-trans writer Jean Hatchet described the protesters as “men and their handmaidens” determined to “intimidate”, and as “idiots banging their drums… to drown out women”. Strangely, the video she posted of protesters showed many smiling faces, people waving, and zero drums.
Yet Hatchet even called for the police to intervene, tweeting: “The trans activists were waiting for women to leave. Where were the cops?”
Hatchet later defended her comments, insisting not only was there “waving and smiling”, there was also “loud chanting, jeering and speeches”.
She added: “When you’ve survived male violence you know, they often come smiling and waving. To start with.”
Hatchet was, however, forced to admit there were no drums, adding: “I heard drums, but the drums were at a workshop underneath the building which of course I was meant to see through the floor.”
And not long after the Nottingham event began, it was announced the screening of Adult Human Female had been cancelled.
Though the organisers claimed the screening had been cancelled because of “vexatious complaints” made to the church and “authoritarian, bullying tactics”, in reality, it appears it was scrapped because the LGBTQ+ inclusive church was unaware the film was anti-trans.
Reverend Richard Byass told PinkNews: “Sherwood Methodist Church, Nottingham accepted a booking from a group to hire space at the church to show a film and hold a presentation regarding women’s rights and domestic violence.
“As an inclusive church, once we became aware of the nature of the film and its impact upon members of the trans community, we deemed it would not be appropriate for the showing to go ahead.”
