Well, what an interesting afternoon I've just had...
Some of you may remember, a few weeks ago, I was obliged to withdraw from my local Race For Life event, due to a threat of unpleasantness from another participant.
Well, this morning, I received a phone call from one of the organisers (I'll call her 'Sue'; not her real name - this is the t'internet, after all)). There'd been an interesting development; she'd received a petition, with about 60 names on it, threatening to withdraw their participation if I and my two friends weren't allowed to join in. So she wanted to meet with me, and the woman who had made the original complaint (I'll call her 'Alison'), to discuss the situation.
I was quite happy to do this, so we arranged to meet at a local pub with a lovely riverside garden. So I stuffed some information leaflets into my bag, started rehearsing a few trans-activist arguments, and went off to the pub. I got there about ten minutes before they did, so I was sat quite comfortably under a big parasol, watching the sun on the river, with a glass of mineral water in my hand(still not drinking alcohol; I've learned my lesson...) when they walked in.
We had an interesting couple of hours; I was quite moved to see the petition, although 'Alison' was adamant that it wouldn't change her mind. So we talked about what the problem really was...her main argument was that 'people like me' had no business in a women-only breast cancer fundraising event, since we don't have breasts, we have silicon implants, and had no idea what it was like to worry about breast cancer...
I briefly entertained the idea of showing her mine (provided that she reciprocated
) , but I decided against it ...instead, I explained to her that she was wrong, and that my boobs were as real as hers. I then told her that I did know how scary breast cancer was, having had a suspicious-lump-scare of my own about 18 months ago (which 'Sue' was able to verify, since it was she who had done my mammogram), and I lost a much-loved family member to cancer a few years ago, so cancer research was something I felt strongly about.
To give her her due, 'Alison' was visibly shaken; she clearly hadn't even considered any of these things, so we talked some more, explained a few more things that she had no idea about...
To cut a long story short, she's apologised, and withdrawn her objection...
and we're back on again
(there's a bit more to this, but it's turning into a bit of an epic, so I'll post that later... )
Some of you may remember, a few weeks ago, I was obliged to withdraw from my local Race For Life event, due to a threat of unpleasantness from another participant.
Well, this morning, I received a phone call from one of the organisers (I'll call her 'Sue'; not her real name - this is the t'internet, after all)). There'd been an interesting development; she'd received a petition, with about 60 names on it, threatening to withdraw their participation if I and my two friends weren't allowed to join in. So she wanted to meet with me, and the woman who had made the original complaint (I'll call her 'Alison'), to discuss the situation.
I was quite happy to do this, so we arranged to meet at a local pub with a lovely riverside garden. So I stuffed some information leaflets into my bag, started rehearsing a few trans-activist arguments, and went off to the pub. I got there about ten minutes before they did, so I was sat quite comfortably under a big parasol, watching the sun on the river, with a glass of mineral water in my hand(still not drinking alcohol; I've learned my lesson...) when they walked in.
We had an interesting couple of hours; I was quite moved to see the petition, although 'Alison' was adamant that it wouldn't change her mind. So we talked about what the problem really was...her main argument was that 'people like me' had no business in a women-only breast cancer fundraising event, since we don't have breasts, we have silicon implants, and had no idea what it was like to worry about breast cancer...
I briefly entertained the idea of showing her mine (provided that she reciprocated
) , but I decided against it ...instead, I explained to her that she was wrong, and that my boobs were as real as hers. I then told her that I did know how scary breast cancer was, having had a suspicious-lump-scare of my own about 18 months ago (which 'Sue' was able to verify, since it was she who had done my mammogram), and I lost a much-loved family member to cancer a few years ago, so cancer research was something I felt strongly about.To give her her due, 'Alison' was visibly shaken; she clearly hadn't even considered any of these things, so we talked some more, explained a few more things that she had no idea about...
To cut a long story short, she's apologised, and withdrawn her objection...
and we're back on again
(there's a bit more to this, but it's turning into a bit of an epic, so I'll post that later...
)
);
