I could not have been more delighted when the group Women’s Place UK (WPUK) asked me to chair an online event to mark the publication of the book Defending Women’s Spaces, written by my friend and feminist comrade Karen Ingala Smith. Let me tell you a little about Karen. For the past 30 years she has been providing services to women and girls who have experienced all forms of male violence, including sexual assault, domestic abuse, and prostitution.

There is nothing hateful, dangerous or violent about promoting female only spaces

Karen has clung on for dear life to keep the Nia Project, of which she is CEO, female only. The Nia Project is one of only two such charities in the country that put the safety of women over the hurt feelings of trans activists. They openly apply the exceptions permitted under the Equality Act to provide women-only refuge and other single-sex support.

She is also the founder of Counting Dead Women, from which the UK Femicide Census grew. Since January 2012 Karen has done her very best to document the death of women and girls at the hands of men. These women are the victims of unbridled male violence, and the femicide census has been incredibly influential in convincing a broad range of people that these deaths can and must be prevented.

There is more I could tell you about Karen’s work, but hopefully I’ve convinced you already that she has a lifetime of commitment to the safety and liberation of women and girls.

Not according to the US ticketing giant, Eventbrite which this week deleted the link to the event, and began issuing refunds, claiming the book launch event could promote ‘hateful views’.

Defending Women’s Spaces is a book about the threat to feminism posed by gender ideology. But according to Eventbrite’s trust and safety team, the event is in danger of violating its policy on ‘Hateful, Dangerous, or Violent Content’. Eventbrite have been contacted for comment.

There is nothing hateful, dangerous or violent about promoting female only spaces. What is hateful are the things that men do to women and girls that create the need for single sex services.

When women flee for their lives in the middle of the night to escape fatal domestic violence, they need a women-only domestic violence refuge.

The teenage girl who has been raped at a party and fears that she will be blamed, not the perpetrator, needs a safe environment to speak to those that understand what she is going through.

Women pimped into prostitution, desperate to escape, often can’t face being anywhere near men as a consequence of the trauma they have endured at the hands of punters. They desperately need to be kept safe from harm.

In short, women only services exist because of the prevalence of male violence. Right now, there is almost an amnesty on rapists, with the current conviction rate standing at around 1 per cent of the fraction that are reported to police.

Even in prison, vulnerable incarcerated women have been forced to endure being locked up with convicted rapists who say they are transgender. Women I have interviewed have told me that they were scared to report sexual harassment and assault to prison officers in case they were punished for ‘transphobia’.

Sarah Summers, a survivor of rape, has been forced to sue Brighton’s Rape Crisis Centre Survivors’ Network for discrimination because it refused to provide a women-only support group.

And a trans identified child sex offender managed to dupe staff at a Leeds Women’s Aid refuge where he resided for 71 days, amongst the most vulnerable women and their children.

These examples are a tiny minority of those I could give that shows how crucial women-only spaces are, and what an enormous threat trans ideology is to the safety of women and girls.

This is why I am so proud to be involved in launching Karen’s book. We need her expertise and her wisdom in order to resist the colonisation of single sex facilities by violent and abusive men.

I am angry that what should’ve been a joyous and celebratory time for Karen has turned into a nightmare. Publishing your first book should be a proud moment. Instead, Karen has been accused of hateful conduct for writing about the crucial work of keeping women safe.

When did so many institutions and individuals begin to put the hurt feelings of men above the safety and well-being of women? The answer is ‘forever’, which is why we have feminism. But today it is being done in the name of trans rights and supported by so called progressives.

Eventbrite have earned significant amounts of money from WPUK over the years, as they have from events of mine and other feminists. They also platform events which promote transgender ideology, and I’m sure if we trawl through other events they have hosted in the past we will find plenty for all of us to be offended by.

Gender ideology is a misogynistic men’s rights movement. To class a feminist event as ‘hateful’ when it is the launch of a book about how to prevent male violence says it all. Women are being prevented from prioritising our needs, to speak of our concerns, or to have anywhere to go that keeps violent men at bay. But we will not cave.

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