In February of this year, grassroots feminist charity FiLiA signed a contract with Plaid Cymru to have a stand at their March Spring Conference. However, this was cancelled by the Party with less than a week to go.
Plaid Cymru representative Elin Jones, chair of Plaid Cymru’s steering committee for its Spring Conference, emailed the organisation on 19th March 2024 – less than 48 hours before the conference was due to start – to cancel the booking, it was stated that this was due to the following: ”some of FiLiA’s positions are potentially contrary to the party’s values – for instance on trans rights” and indicating that the presence of the stall would prevent the conference from being a ‘safe space’.
This week, after previously accepting the cancellation amounted to a breach of the contract with FiLiA and offering partial compensation for FiLiA’s costs, Plaid Cymru have accepted that the decision to cancel this booking on the basis of FiLiA’s protected beliefs amounted to an act of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
Source: Plaid Cymru Admit Unlawfully Discriminating Against FiLiA — FiLiA
The contention as to ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ space is extraordinary. One simply has to look with open eyes at demonstrations and violent placards, statements on x twitter and facebook, et al, urging rape and death in respect of women who believe that biology is real – rather, know that biology is real. The violence and lack of safety is against the latter. Hence it is a mystery as to why the stand should have been cancelled on contentions of somehow denying ‘safe’ space. Look at the way police face when they attend rallies run by women who know sex is real as in biology. They do not face the women. They do not see the women as dangerous or ‘creating “unsafe” space’.