Feminists decry ‘bully’ Greens
Feminist group accuses the Greens of having ‘vilified, harassed and threatened’ any member who wishes to discuss questions of gender identity.
The spokeswoman for a newly-formed feminist organisation has accused the Greens of having “silenced, vilified, harassed and threatened” any party member who wishes to discuss questions of gender identity and women’s rights.
Retired Sydney University emeritus professor of transnational studies and feminist and lesbian activist Bronwyn Winter has helped to found a new group known as Australian Feminists for Women’s Rights (AF4WR) in the wake of recent incidents in the Victorian and NSW branches of the Greens.
Last week, Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam opted to overturn the election of party convener Linda Gale following a social media storm over an academic paper she had written in 2019. In the paper, Ms Gale noted the battle feminists had fought for freedom for male rights and specific rights for women, such as reproductive and maternity rights and equality with men in public life, and argued: “If ‘woman’ is a category predicated entirely on a person’s subjective self-identification rather than on an objective, identifiable fact such as biology, what are the policy and practical implications for these hard-won sex-segregated spaces or sex-specific affirmative actions?”
Despite no mention of the issue in her campaign to become Greens convener, Ms Gale was slammed by Greens members and trans activists on social media soon after her election, prompting Dr Ratnam to overturn her election on a technicality.
Defending her decision, Dr Ratnam argued: “The rights of trans and gender diverse people are not up for debate. To defend the use of trans-exclusionary language and allow debates about whether trans women should have access to the same spaces as cis women is to deny their very identities and right to equality.”
So many Greens supporters have joined our movement over the years because of our unwavering commitment to equality, including for trans and gender diverse people.
— Samantha Ratnam - Leader of the Victorian Greens (@SamanthaRatnam) June 17, 2022
Right now, those supporters are understandably very distressed & disappointed by what is happening in the party. 1/7
In NSW, Feminist Legal Clinic principal solicitor Anna Kerr has been expelled from the Greens and prohibited from ever rejoining after posting articles on the clinic’s website expressing similar concerns to those for which Ms Gale was attacked.
Melbourne City councillor Rohan Leppert was recently the target of a similar campaign, as was Victorian Women’s Guild founding member Nina Vallins, who was suspended from the party for six months in 2020.
Professor Winter said AF4WR included current and former Greens and ALP members, and other women who were not members of either party but “on the political left”.
“The fundamental issue in relation to the Greens is the shutting down of participatory democracy, which is one of the four pillars of their policy platform,” she said.
“Every time women and a number of men express concerns about the imposition of gender identity ideology without discussion or reflection, those concerns are dismissed and the people expressing them are not only silenced, but vilified, harassed and threatened.”
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