It was a beautiful day, cold but sunny. Thank you for inviting me to speak. Here is what I said.
NO MATTER HOW WRONG HER OPINION IS
I am here to say sorry. Sorry that it took me until 2018 to wake up. Sorry to all the women who carried the burden of this before 2018 and who must have felt like they were very alone.
But I am glad to have woken up. (now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)”
Everyone here supports everyone’s right to live their best possible life. No one should suffer abuse or discrimination because of how they wish to identify, or dress or love. But in order to live together in the world there has to be respect for one another and recognition of where our boundaries lie.
But respect is not offered to women. It is demanded that we ‘be kind’, be compliant, capitulate. And if we refuse we will be punished. We will lose our reputations, our jobs, maybe our liberty. Even our books aren’t safe; we can’t be trusted to read, which means we can’t be trusted to think and we won’t be allowed to speak.
Of all the many injustices and unlawful acts and omissions that have filled me with rage and terror in equal part in the past three years, the worst by far is the capture of the police by this sex denying ideology that is fuelled by misogyny.
Let me read to you the latest comment on my activities by Wiltshire Police. Remember that this is the force who told me they acted in ‘good faith’ when they unlawfully recorded me on a police data base as a ‘barrister posting hate’.
31/08/2021 17:40 #2918 DAYBELL, A. No T2100201991 Enquiry - incident Closed Log entry: I have reviewed this occurence and cannot see that a crime has occurred. The RP, who is also the suspect, has agreed with a sticker which has been posted saying "TRANSWOMEN ARE MEN". The RP has then reported herself as the suspect for a hate incident due to her views. She has not incited racial hatred in any way, she has not posted the stickers herself and she has not asked others to listen to her opinions. I am of the opinion that PHILLIMORE is wasting police time, however reading through her report/letters it seems as though police attention is what she is trying to get and she wants to provoke a reaction from law enforcement agencies. I do not think it is appropriate to engage with PHILL MORE, and it would be a further waste of police time to take this matter any further. I have looked at the suspects history and here are similar past occurences where she has stated her opinions on transgender persons and trans rights in various online forums. The previous incidents have all been NFA, she is stating her opinion, which she is entitled to, no matter how wrong her opinion is. As such I am closing this task
It seems the police genuinely cannot see how they have abandoned their own Code of Ethics. They genuinely do not see or understand how adopting one particular side in a political argument is destroying our trust and confidence in them. And we matter. Our opinions matter. Our rights matter.
I hope events like this might make some at least stop and reflect. Because you will have to build a lot more criminal courts and many more prisons to detain every woman who insists on telling you that sex is real and it matters. And what will you do with all the books you seize? Burn them or stack them? The fires of that bonfire will be seen for miles and remembered for decades. Choose another way. Let go – or be dragged.
'Wasting police time'? They are wasting their own time! And ours!
Well said, Sarah.