They were told
Great god almighty.
Rape survivors met with Sandy Brindley to talk about their fears around self-identified trans “women” at the [Edinburgh] Rape Crisis Centre. After the meeting got going it became clear that Brindley had brought along an activist academic (who, we know from what we read yesterday, was Brindley’s girlfriend), without asking or warning the rape survivors, or even saying who she was or explaining why she was there. The way I understand it is that the rape survivors had asked to meet with Brindley. Not random other people, and sure as fuck not her squeeze who is a trans-ideologue. Brindley simply imposed that situation on them, without asking, without mentioning, without explaining. It would be bad behavior even if the uninvited guest had been a warm ally of the rape survivors. Since she was very much not that, it’s completely outrageous.
And what this terrible person told them is, of course, even worse.
Survivors of rape have no rights in law to expect a female-only service. Picture it to yourself: a woman, uninvited, tells a group of rape survivors they have no right in law to expect men to be excluded from the service they sought at the RAPE CRISIS CENTRE. A woman they never asked to meet with, dumped on them by the woman they did ask to meet with, who is the boss of the rape crisis centre in question. It’s Trump-level insult and sadism.
And there’s all the rest of what this pair of fiends told the women.
It’s like putting a rabbi in charge of Nazi pogroms.
Cowan appears to have been presented as a legal authority as much as an academic. But RCS is now in some real legal peril, because she is an academic ( a law school professor) but not a lawyer despite her degree. Her opinions on what the law should look like are fine for an academic, however presenting them as policy guidance is nonsense. The statements about the inapplicability of the sex-based exceptions in the 2010 Equality Act are absolute word salad. Case law can certainly define them, bur organizations don’t wait around for case law to provide guidance, they move ahead with the law as it is and correct in reaction to case law. Rape crisis centers are one of those prima facie examples that legislators start from, the case law defines where the applicability has to stop.
“They were told”
Just like the FTB bullies of 9 years ago, who asserted that once “you’ve been told” about someone’s designer gender identity and custom pronouns, it’s practically a crime not to capitulate immediately.