Row breaks out over event's single-sex policy

A row has broken out over an event's single-sex attendance policy.

Rosie Hayes told the BBC multiple venues in Brighton had cancelled or stopped hosting trauma-healing classes organised by her group Sisters Heal for the victims of sexual assault, rape and domestic abuse, which were limited to "biological women only".

She has claimed the venues were pressured into dropping the event due to "intense harassment" from what she called "trans activists".

Terf Watch Brighton, which describes itself as a grassroots collective of journalists reporting on "anti-trans efforts", said it was not aware of any groups or networks coordinating opposition to Sisters Heal.

It added that it had not contacted the venues or shared information about those events on its platforms, although it had reported on social media about separate activities of Sisters Heal.

Hayes, who is a co-founder of Sisters Heal, told the BBC she restricted attendance to the class because "a lot of women cannot heal in a mixed-sex space".

"Female survivors [of sexual abuse and domestic violence] have been harmed by male bodies, male voices, male presence, male physicality," she said.

"It's a trauma response that they have, which isn't cognitive.

"They can't reason themselves out of it."

Terf Watch Brighton told the BBC the groups run and advocated for by Sisters Heal and similar organisations are discriminatory to trans women, and deliberately divisive.

"Their purpose is always, at least in part, to push trans women out of society - it is unreasonable not to expect complaints and political opposition."

One venue - which the BBC spoke to anonymously - said they stopped hosting the event because of the row that had broken out on both sides.

Hayes added that many women would "self-exclude" if men attended, which would limit their access to help and support.

She continued that, since the trans community in Brighton had access to mixed spaces and their own dedicated services, women should have their own spaces too.

Hayes claimed that Sisters Heal was not transphobic as trans men were permitted to attend the classes.

"Trans men could have experienced traumas, such as stillbirth and miscarriage, that are a female experience, even if they don't identify as female," Hayes added.

Terf Watch Brighton said the line drawn for the need for "single-sex services" was "arbitrary, unevidenced, and based on prejudiced myths about how gender operates in society".

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