New Ground Cohousing 💙

@SeeRedWoman1 speech #OneYearLaterBelfast "In five days’ time, it will be exactly one year since the Supreme Court ruling.And what did it say? Something so simple it should never have needed saying. That women-only spaces are for women. Years of fighting. Thousands of pounds. Extraordinary courage. For what was, in the end, just stating the obvious. Finally, in law. And yet here we are. In Belfast. One year on, Still waiting for it to mean something in actual, everyday life. Let’s talk about the women who got us here. Marion, Trina, Susan, and Magdalen Berns. The women behind For Women Scotland. They saw what was happening and refused to go along with it.Magdalen didn’t live to see the ruling. She kept going through illness, kept speaking, kept telling the truth. She died in 2019, aged 36. Her words still stand:It’s not hate to defend your rights. And it’s not hate to speak the truth. I found her at a point when I thought I was alone. She cut through everything. No performance. Just clarity. I was blacklisted by feminist groups here in Belfast for mentioning her. I know what it costs to even say her name. And I’m saying it anyway. Marion, Trina and Susan carried that fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Mocked, dismissed, told they were on the wrong side of history. They weren’t And they’re not the only ones. J. K. Rowling faced a cultural pile-on most people wouldn’t withstand. Told her career was over. Attacked from every direction. - She didn’t back down. Maya Forstater lost her job for stating a basic fact. Took it to tribunal. Lost. Appealed. And won. That judgment changed the landscape. Every case since stands on ground she helped secure. Because of her our reality is worthy of respect in a democratic society. Sandie Peggie, an A&E nurse, objected to a male colleague in the women’s changing room. She was suspended, investigated for months, and took NHS Fife to tribunal. She succeeded in her claim and is still appealing the parts that didn’t go her way with the most incredible counsel. Two years of her life. She’s Still fighting. And the Darlington nurses. Eight of them. They raised concerns, were ignored, told to broaden their mindset. They formed a union, took a case, and were successful at tribunal. And then the arts. Because this is personal. Róisín Murphy. I’ve loved her music for years. And when she spoke, privately, about puberty blockers, it felt like the industry turned on her almost overnight. Reviews rewritten. Her Album sidelined. Pressure to apologise. She didn’t. And that matters. Rosie Kay. Pushed out of the company she built. So she built something else. Denise Fahmy. Fifteen years at Arts Council England. Faced a hostile internal climate, resigned, took a case, and won. And there are others - claudia, sibyl and . Women who can’t be named. Watching. Waiting. Weighing the cost. - We are here for them too. I worked in the arts here in Northern Ireland. Inclusion was my job. Literally. And when I spoke, in my own time, about why single-sex services matter, that inclusion stopped at me.The pressure built quietly at first, and then all at once, until leaving didn’t feel like a choice anymore. And I left. Not because I was wrong. Because I became a problem. And there are women here who know that feeling exactly. The email you don’t send. The meeting where you stay silent. The quiet calculation that the cost is just too high. Women are still making that calculation. Today. So yes. The ruling matters. It confirmed that sex means biological sex. That single-sex spaces are lawful. That women’s rights to privacy, dignity and safety are real. That’s not abstract. It’s the woman in a refuge who needs to know who she’s sharing with. It’s the survivor walking into a rape crisis centre who needs clarity, not ambiguity. I can tell you that trust isn’t a detail in that work, it’s the entire foundation. So the law is clear. The need is clear. And still, nothing moves. #OneYearLater