Oh goodness gracious me, they had no idea.

Organisers of a women’s rights march have been forced to drop a transgender speaker after being “made aware” of a violent past.

The co-ordinators of the UK Women’s March (UKWM) caused outrage by asking Sarah Jane Baker, a convicted criminal, to address crowds on Saturday in London. The organisers had encouraged “anyone who is an ally of women and believes in women’s rights” to march with them in the fight for gender equality – and the event was set to have Baker as a speaker.

However, they have now said that Baker will not be given a platform. They said they had not previously known that the transgender rights activist was the subject of a life sentence for attempted murder and had served 30 years in 29 separate male prisons.

Excuse me???

If that’s really true, how did they manage to know enough about him to find it appropriate to invite him to tell the assembled women what’s what? If they didn’t know that about him what did they know about him? What the hell prompted them to invite him in the first place? Sheer fucking spite against the very people they claim to speak for – women?

“There has been a lot of social media traffic about Sarah Jane Baker speaking at the UK Women’s March in London tomorrow,” organisers said in a statement online.

“We would like to clarify that after being made aware of Sarah’s criminal background in interpersonal abuse, UKWM and Sarah have mutually agreed that she will stand down as a speaker at the event.”

Those absolute shits. It wasn’t mere “interpersonal abuse”; it was attempted murder.

The punchline of the whole thing is that Baker is now mad at the organizers.

“I sent a statement to the organisers and asked to share it with the public stating that it had been mutually agreed that I would step aside so that the march’s focus would be on women’s issues, not transgender issues.” However, Baker said, an alternative statement from the organisers was instead released.

“I do not agree with this new statement and was not involved at any point in its formation,” Baker added. “It is deeply disappointing and yet entirely predictable from people who don’t actually have the guts to fight on these issues.”

So that went well.