Millwall football club cancels ‘anti trans’ event with speaker who claimed raising trans kids is ‘child abuse’
The event was originally to be hosted at Millwall FC (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
An event featuring an activist who likened raising trans kids to child abuse has been cancelled.
The panel discussion, billed as exploring “the consequences for women if men are legally recognised as female”, will no longer take place at Millwall FC next Wednesday, a spokesman for the club told PinkNews.
It follows a backlash when the event, Transgenderism and the War on Women, was scheduled last month. Activists on social media labelled it “anti-trans”.
At the time, Millwall said its south London stadium, The Den, could be hired out by a “wide range of different legitimate organisations”. It said this did not mean the club supported the organisations running them.
Now organisers We Need To Talk UK say the club cancelled the event. Millwall declined to comment on the claim.
One panellist, Australian academic Sheila Jeffreys claimed in a 2013 interview, published on her website, that raising trans children was similar to child abuse.
She said: “I think we might be having to move towards the point where we recognise that parents who encourage this idea in children are involved in a form of child abuse.”
Anne Ruzylo, another panellist, resigned from her local branch of the Labour in East Sussex last year in a bullying row.
She alleged she was subjected to months of harassment by trans rights campaigners, but also faced allegations of “transphobic” behaviour herself.
A description of the event, on the website Eventbrite, says: “The talks will focus on the origins and nature of ‘transgenderism’ and its implications and consequences for women, lesbians in particular.”
Millwall FC confirmed the event was no longer taking place at its stadium, The Den (Getty)
It adds: “The meeting will highlight concerns over the government’s proposed updates for the Gender Recognition Act, which include allowing anyone to self identify their legal sex, lowering the age of consent for gender reassignment surgery from 18 to 16 years, making ‘misgendering’ a hate crime and conflating the legal definition of sex and gender.”
The apparently sold-out event will now take place at a new venue to be confirmed, organisers said. Private security and police will be in attendance, they added.
