Our feminist conference this past October 16-17th in Portsmouth attracted over 1,100 people interested in the women’s liberation movement. Our overwhelmingly female attendees were keen to learn about a range of issues such as male violence against women, the abuse of black women in employment, disability issues, religious fundamentalism, the political participation of migrant women, maternity matters, the importance of lesbian spaces and environmentalism.

Some of our panels focused on sex-based rights and featured a range of feminist speakers from all around the world. These panels emphasised the negative impact that the authoritarian imposition of “gender identity” policies (or sex self-identification) is having on single-sex services, femicide data, children’s development and the rights of women in prison.

Poignantly, during our FiLiA 2021 Conference, we held a Feminist Vigil at the Town Hall Square to commemorate the lives of women and girls killed by men. We shared our mourning, our anger and our outrage at the seemingly never-ending stream of abuse and violence women are subjected to. Women from Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, the UK and Pakistan (among others) spoke movingly in remembrance of their sisters whose lives have been violently taken by men.

At the entrance of our Portsmouth Guildhall venue, women and their children were greeted by sexually abusive signs held by protestors claiming, in part, to represent Amnesty International UK. Transactivist protesters chanted “Trans women are women”, “Blow jobs are real jobs” and “No TERFs in Pompey Turf.” They held signs that read “Suck my dick, you transphobic cunts” and wrote with chalk “Transphobes can suck on my pink strap” on the Guildhall entrance.

At the Femicide Vigil, women and children had to stand on those messages while we mourned our sisters.

Protesters also held signs stating: “I AM WHO I SAY I AM: Amnesty International” and “LOVE IS A HUMAN RIGHT: Amnesty International”.

A week after our FiLiA Conference in Portsmouth, Amnesty International issued a statement distancing themselves from the protest but admitted to providing materials to the organisers. They conceded that “threatening and aggressive language” was used against the women and children attending our FiLiA 2021 conference and claimed to be shocked by this.

We are pleased that Amnesty International draws a line on sexually abusive and threatening intimidation by protesters who organise under their name and felt compelled to issue a public statement about it. However, we reject the organisations attempts to distance themselves from the toxic climate of abuse and intimidation feminists have been forced to endure and Amnesty International has helped create.

The statement “I AM WHO I SAY I AM” is a supremacist mantra. Around the UK and worldwide, transactivists have used this slogan to unceremoniously dismiss the legitimate concerns of feminists who defend their sex-based rights. The statement “I AM WHO I SAY I AM” is incompatible with a democratic society in which everybody’s human rights are balanced and respected. The statement “I AM WHO I SAY I AM” is an insult to the women and girls whose voices, lives and experiences are systemically invisibilised in a patriarchal society.

While transactivist campaigners, including Amnesty International, have every right to demand changes in public policy, they do not get to unilaterally impose their desires on the rest of the population as if their wishes represented the law. In the UK, everybody has rights based on sex (including the right to single-sex services and spaces) so the intonation “I AM WHO I SAY I AM” encourages transactivists to violate women’s personal boundaries and legal protections.

We call on Amnesty International to withdraw this totalitarian mantra from their official materials and to publicly acknowledge that, when it comes to women’s rights and trans rights, there are competing human rights that must be balanced wisely and democratically.

We are publicly requesting a meeting between our organisations so we can discuss this matter further.

We also invite the leadership of Amnesty International UK to attend our FiLiA 2022 Conference in Cardiff so they can personally engage in dialogue with the global range of feminist speakers who make our annual women’s liberation gathering possible.