Who’s who on the frontline

HEATHER BINNING

EX- DIPlomAT and businesswoman Heather Binning set up the Women’s Rights Network in 2021. She says: ‘Thousands of women are bullied into silence for fear they may lose their jobs or relationships. This verges on the dystopian.’

MAYA FORSTATER

SEX matters executive director maya Forstater’s landmark employment tribunal ruled she was discriminated against when she lost her job over sex-based beliefs. She says: ‘It’s time for all parties to stand up for women’s rights. Unless politicians are clear that women are a group that needs protection on the basis of sex, then women’s rights will be ignored.’

CATHY LARKMAN

CATHy lARKmAN, a retired South Wales Police superintendent, is national policing lead and Wales co-ordinator at the Women’s Rights Network. She says: ‘Those in charge of the police service appear to have forgotten that women are part of the public they serve and that self ID is not the law in this country. They are allowing male sex offences, even rapes, to be recorded as a female crime.’

EMMA BATEMAN

FoRmER co-chair of Green Party Women, Emma Bateman is taking legal action against the party for expelling her over her views: ‘Countless women have been labelled bigots simply for recognising that in some circumstances, sex matters.’

SONYA DOUGLAS

ARTIST Sonya Douglas, on the advisory board of Freedom In The Arts and Sex matters, says: ‘We’ve seen the chilling effect of a politicised diversity drive in the arts, which has played out in the cancellation of various women. many feel they have to self-censor or leave the industry.’

SALLY WAINWRIGHT

Co-EDIToR of Women’s Rights, Gender Wrongs and Scottish lesbians campaigner, Sally Wainwright says: ‘It’s vital adolescent lesbians can be supported by older lesbians rather than being encouraged to transition. The extreme misogyny and lesbophobia of gender-identity ideology needs to be robustly rejected.’

DR KAREN INGALA SMITH

Co-CREAToR of the Femicide Census, a database of UK women killed by men, Dr Karen Ingala Smith says: ‘on average a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK. I want to see a government that genuinely aims to end men’s violence against women, girls and children.’

FIONA MCANENA

CAmPAIGN director at Sex matters, Fiona mcAnena spent five years at Fair Play For Women. She says: ‘If it says it’s a women’s team or a female- only gym, swimming session, bike ride or yoga class then that’s what it must be.’

HELEN JOYCE

ADVoCACy director for Sex matters, Helen Joyce is a journalist and author. She says: ‘listen to women when we say “no” and don’t bully and intimidate us when we dare to speak. I won’t say trans women are women, because doing so is a lie that harms our rights.’