Brighton’s LGBTQ+ community is taking a stand against alleged transphobia within one of the city’s oldest community organisations. Over 18 activist groups, including Trans Liberation Front Brighton, FemFest, Polyglamorous and the Brighton Solidarity Federation, have declared a boycott of the Resource Centre after accusations that some of the key management in the organisation are involved with an anti-trans hate group.
In an open letter sent to the Resource Centre, the Alliance Against Bigotry Brighton detailed claims that “someone who wields a lot of power” at the centre, is an organiser for the ‘gender critical’ group Sister’s Salon. The letter states that Sister’s Salon has worked to limit rights for trans youth and promoted the film Adult Human Female, which has been praised by far-right figures like Posie Parker and Anne Marie Walters, who was ousted from UKIP for being too far right.
“As left-wing and activist organisations in Brighton, we will no longer be using the Resource Centre until these people of concern are removed from their position,” the letter declares, “as their involvement in the Resource Centre violates the very principles that this organisation was meant to exist upon and actively puts transgender lives in danger.”
The boycott represents an unified front from LGBTQ+ groups across Brighton & Hove against what they view as anti-trans discrimination within an organisation meant to support marginalised communities. It’s another example of the way the diverse LGBTQ+ communities in the city are increasingly standing up and calling out charities or groups in the city who have an explicit non inclusive agenda and are being heavily and covertly influenced by staff members promoting their own personal beliefs.
The group says: “The Resource Centre prides itself on being led by voluntary group activists from marginalised communities. If these allegations are true, having leadership tied to a hate group that targets trans people is completely antithetical to their stated mission. We cannot stand by while an organisation that claims to help us is run by those who would deny our very existences.”
There has been no response from the Resource Centre at the time of publication. However, the coalition of boycotting groups stated they would resume utilising the centre’s services and spaces if these people and their non inclusive views are no longer employed there.
“We’re giving the Resource Centre the opportunity to live up to the inclusive values they profess by cutting ties with anti-trans bigotry. But we won’t stay silent while our lives are endangered. The trans community and our allies are drawing a firm line.”
The brewing controversy represents an escalating societal clash between a new generation of LGBTQ+ activists prioritising inclusive feminisim alongside trans and nonbinary rights and an emboldened small faction peddling trans-exclusionary views dressed up as a desire to protect ‘single sex’ spaces.
The list of signatories of groups forming Alliance Against Bigotry Brighton come from across the LGBTQ, QTIPOC and TNBI community and ally groups of the city, are currently
Alliance for Care and Health Empowerment
Anti Raids Brighton
Anti Harassment Club
Trans Liberation Front Brighton
FemFest
FemRock Brighton
Brighton Solidarity Federation
GalPals
LeftBians
BBG Brighton
The Queery
Brighton Care Collective
LGSM: Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants
Polyglamorous
Seasalt Housing Cooperative
Protest Props
Transform Brighton and Hove
See the full details of the boycott via the social media posts here:
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