Mick Hartley

That Brighton women's group – the one whose meeting was maliciously disrupted when trans activist Sarah Savage set off a fire alarm – have now issued a statement:

We are delighted to report that the event did (eventually) go ahead as planned and was a great success. We are liaising with the police and understand that a criminal investigation is ongoing. 

Sisters Salon is an established women’s group in Brighton and our meeting last Saturday was one part of a consultation seeking women’s views on the development of an NHS Women’s Health Hub for Brighton & Hove.

This is an important initiative. We know women are more likely than men to experience certain physical and mental health conditions, face barriers in accessing quality healthcare and experience poorer outcomes in a range of conditions such as heart attacks. Statistics from the Department of Health and Social Care state that 84% of women do not feel that they are listened to by healthcare professionals. 

And so, we are proud to have received funding from NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board to ensure the voices of local women are included in their consultation. 47 women registered for our event and we were able to get a range of perspectives on what a Women’s Health Hub should offer. 

However, Sarah Savage (organiser of Trans Pride in Brighton) intentionally set off a fire alarm in an attempt to disrupt us and stop our health consultation. This intolerant targeting was distressing and disruptive for Sisters Salon attendees, the children using our creche, library staff and the hundreds of library users who were evacuated, including many young people studying for upcoming GCSEs and A Levels.

In an instagram video, Savage falsely claims that Sisters Salon is a ‘notorious hate group’. This is untrue, upsetting and libellous and only serves to cause unhelpful division within the local community. You can read our mythbusters here….

We believe protests about women holding single-sex events are rooted in misogyny and have no place in our diverse city. The single-sex nature of our meetings is legitimate and in line with equality law. At a meeting on women’s health, a single sex space is especially important as it empowers women to speak freely about our own health issues and focus specifically on our own needs. 

Maliciously setting off a fire alarm goes beyond a simple protest – it is unduly provocative, stops women from exercising their Article Eleven right to freedom of assembly. This, together with subsequent inflammatory statements on social media, and misogynistic slurs, has whipped up hostility and misplaced fear about our group. It has resulted in graphic and violent threats towards us.

The gross smug entitlement and misogyny of that preening idiot's ridiculous justification for his fire alarm prank really sums up the trans movement. It should get as much publicity as possible – and then compared to this eminently sane and reasonable response. We see what's going on here.