A feminist campaigner, journalist and author is raising funds to sue Nottingham City Council after they cancelled her talk at a Nottinghamshire library. Julie Bindel was due to speak at Aspley Library on Saturday, June 25, but this talk was cancelled by the council after the "speaker's views on transgender rights was brought to the Library Service's attention."
Miss Bindel described the council's decision to cancel the event due to her own beliefs as "despicable." She said: "It's humiliating but more importantly it's disrespectful and insulting to the women and girls in Nottingham to be told they can't hear a feminist voice."
Due to the talk being sold out, Miss Bindel decided to keep hold the talk in the car park instead and said she would not be "intimidated" into cancelling it. A group opposing the talk from Nottingham Against Transphobia were also in attendance, and reportedly played loud music throughout the talk.
Following the council's decision to cancel the talk, Julie is taking action under the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998. So far, Miss Bindel has raised more than £37,500 from over 1.560 donors towards her legal fees.
On her Crowd Justice page, Julie wrote: "Nottingham City Council decided to ban me, not because of the subject I was going to be speaking about, but merely because I hold feminist views which are in opposition to gender ideology. I consider it to be deeply offensive and problematic for public bodies to decide that I am too controversial and even dangerous for women to listen to when I am talking about campaigning to end rape and domestic abuse."
She says it is important that women in deprived communities have the opportunity to come together and the public spaces which allow women to do so are essential. Miss Bindel feels that if a voice can be silenced because views are not shared, than this can have implications for all feminists.
Miss Bindel continued: "I am taking this case in order to prevent Nottingham City Council and other local authorities and public bodies from banning feminists who oppose gender ideology from public buildings. The first stage in my case is to write a legal letter to Nottingham City Council to give them the chance to provide an explanation for banning me from speaking, and to give them the opportunity to put it right.
"If they don’t do that, then we will start court proceedings." A joint statement by Nottingham City Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Adele Williams and Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods, Safety and Inclusion, Councillor Neghat Khan, announcing the cancelled event said: "Nottingham is an inclusive city and as a council we support our LGBT community and have committed to supporting trans rights as human rights through Stonewall.
"We did not want the use of one of our library buildings for this event, taking place during Pride month, to be seen as implicit support for views held by the speaker which fly in the face of our position on transgender rights."
Miss Bindel's Crowd Justice page can be found here.
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