A city council has apologised to veteran feminist and lesbian activist Julie Bindel after cancelling a talk because of “the speaker’s views on transgender rights”.
Bindel has been accused of transphobia because she says she does not believe trans women can legitimately say they are a woman. At the time, she said she had no plan to talk about transgender issues.
“I was going up to speak about feminism, about violence against women,” she said. “I was invited by a group of community activists who are trying to keep the library open.”
In a post on her Substack blog discussing the recent development by the council, Bindel said: “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.
A spokesperson for the council said: “Nottingham city council has agreed that, if Nottingham Women for Change seeks to make a booking at any Nottingham city council venue by way of a fully completed booking form, the council will make a fresh decision in response to such request upon a lawful basis.”