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I attended Riley Gaines' Speech at Harvard
Link to the video of the speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW-06YXQMD0
On Thursday, Oct 26, 2023, I attended the speech Riley Gaines gave at Harvard University. The event was held at Boylston Hall on the Harvard Campus. When I arrived, a small group of students had gathered outside the building for a “trans-joy party.” Screenshot of Riley's tweet about the party. The main group of “protesters” was gathered off the side, so I didn’t interact with them. They had also set up an information table and some of the students were writing slogans on the walkway in front of the building with chalk. The table had markers and construction paper for students to write statements and a flyer “fact-checking” some of Riley’s talking points. Pics of table and signs
To get into the building we had to line up around the back to check in. (We had to pre-register for the event). There were Harvard police and security present around and inside the building. While I was waiting in line, a group of students came around to hand out the “fact-checking” flyer. This was the only interaction I had with this group of students and despite their flyer being nonsense, the group was polite and even took some pro-woman stickers that another attendee offered them.
The speech was hosted by the Harvard Undergraduate Network of Enlightened Women, which is a conservative women’s group on campus. There were, at best guess, around 100 attendees. I think the room hit capacity, so I don’t know if everyone who was waiting outside got a chance to get in. Most of the attendees looked like undergrads and there were a surprising amount of young men.
Before the talk, there was a notice about how the school was going to handle any disruption to the event. They said that they would allow a protest to last for 10 min. After 10 min, if the protestors were still being disruptive they would be escorted out of the building.
Riley spoke for about an hour. She detailed her experience with Lia Thomas, about being forced to share the trophy and the changing room with a man. She made it clear that this is an institutional problem. She said that she had to attend media training about Thomas and practice pronoun use. The school also told them that they shouldn’t speak out against Thomas because they were supposed to represent the university. She also said Thomas was allowed to use the women’s changing room because they had turned the changing room into a “unisex” space. She said when she started speaking out people would be supportive in person, but were reluctant to sign their name to any sort of petition or to be on the record.
Near the end of the speech she said that, although this journey for her started as a fairness in sports issue, she recognizes that this issue has wide-reaching consequences, such as the erasure of language and the presence of men in women’s prisons/domestic violence and rape shelters. She is also an advocate for The Women’s Bill of Rights.
The speech went long, so there wasn’t that much time for questions. The presenters asked that we use a website to submit questions. Most of the questions that I saw were supportive. There were one or two questions submitted to the website asking why Riley insisted on misgendering Thomas.
The audience was receptive and there were no disruptions. I have a feeling that most of these students were conservative-leaning. By the time the speech was over, the “trans-joy party” outside had also ended.
Overall I enjoyed her speech. She was eloquent and prepared. She is very comfortable talking about her own experiences. Though I hope in the future she takes the time to condense her speech. At the beginning, we were told the speech would be 20 min and it ended up being about an hour. It took her about 15 min just to get to the meet with Thomas. The length of the speech cut down on the curated question time.
She is Christian and conservative and those ideas did seep into her speech at times. (Examples are talking about Covid restrictions, Marxism, how men need to practice “positive masculinity”). She is still young and I can see her continuing to refine her speech and position.
Overall I’m glad I attended. I had been a little nervous about attending, but everything went smoothly. The TRA students were not disruptive and there was a good security presence which made me safe as an attendee.
Here is a link to the Crimson, if you want to see how Harvard reported on the event. link | archive link
I really hope it is not only successful, but takes off as an idea in other places. It sucks we have to go back to such private groups as lesbians, but such avaliable separation would also send a message that many of us are sick of the forced teaming and intrusion.
Yeah, it's us literally digging in our heels and saying;
"if you won't listen to our words, you'll damn well start respecting our boundaries"
On twitter the TiMs go insane about this. And their favorite thing to write is "How are they going to decide who can come in? They will do genital checks?". No idea how they will know who are the women, because obviously we can never tell..... 🤭
Tongue and cheek, given the ruling, I'd say even if they'd try to sneak in, each and every actual lesbian there is there for a reason. I can't imagine they'd be hidden long, even TiMs that pass better than the vast uncanny valley territory they mostly inhabit still maintain elements of male social patterns and attributes (to an extent), and that alone will unearth them,
It's why, even over text it can sometimes be easier than sin distinguishing between the two,
I'm not too worried
It 100% feels like a real turning point. I hope it succeeds and gives ideas to other lesbian entrepreneurs around the world 🤞 I’ll visit for sure if I ever go back to London.
Same same, there's something that burns like a fire when I see lesbians being the pillars of strength that we are,
We are the smallest, yet the fiercest, go us!
Hopefully, my gf and I can visit. I would love to support Jenny (I think thats her name).
I hope it’s beyond successful, and from doing so offers up inspiration and incentive for women in other countries (like the US and Canada) to muster up the courage to follow in her footsteps.
If anything I’m hoping lesbian women from other countries would visit the UK just to get on her membership as part of their travel stay in England. Having money from women who are even just passing through the UK will expand her reach and her income further. I know if I ever manage to get over there, I’m gonna become a member and experience a lesbian space, you can bet your ass!
As you’ve said, the obvious truth will become even more obvious and would be thrust into the TIMs faces even more so. Scrote be-gone! (Now I want to form a tongue in cheek infomercial haha)
I was wondering if she'd implement subscriptions, because I'd absolutely support this venue,
I think TiM's are vastly underestimating how detested they are, and this will be an interesting wake-up call,
You can bet your bottom dollar they're going to attempt to fear monger this, so I hope they have everything from security to privatized entrances..the works
They so are underestimating their detestment because they’ve been barely getting by with brainwashing and intimidation techniques on women, cause shocker they’re still men with a problem about being told “no”. So now these narcissist men are gonna wanna throw a massive (and potentially violent) hissy fit.
I hope she has the works as well. CCTV cameras, security, bouncers, privatized entrances, a location that is hidden from view, like make it so it’s extremely hole in the wall place.
And as I’ve said, I’d greatly pay a subscription too if I can’t get a full membership since I don’t live in the UK. I wonder if she can set up means of donation safely that’s not through a greedy TRA run website like gofundme.
You also have to consider the fine line they're now walking -
As the UK has two prominent Gay/turned Queer bars that advocate inclusion for all, which means that TiMs showing up to picket a tiny venue for a minority would warrant more questions than answers,
As to why exactly they're fear mongering resources already made available to them, and why they insist in participating in groups actively made to avoid them?
These kind of wedges can air a lot of dirty laundry, I'm interested
Ah I see what you mean, but the reason why they’d picket a minority owned place like this potentially is simply because they don’t want their own spaces.
They’ve colonized two other bars, it’s never enough for them. They want the entire world to recognize them as something they are not, so if just one place is allowed to stand that doesn’t allow TIMs, their whole fake dream world comes crashing down. And they don’t want that.
But those are moments that are easily exploitable as well, I'm usually fairly quiet in my advocacy (Canada, yech), however, that is the kind of moment where we need to be loud.
Because at one point, it will be them (males) arguing against lesbians (females) for lesbian spaces - do you see how poorly it looks once definite sides are established.
Because if done correctly, and privacy permitted, I don't see why any lesbian would deny or discredit this service
Right, exactly. TIMs aren’t smart. There’s no rationale to their thinking either. They’ll just keep playing into our hands by helping other peak further.
I don’t think a lesbian would deny or discredit this service unless she wholly subscribes to the lunacy that is gender ideology. If a woman truly believes that lesbians trying to just live our lives as lesbians away from men in our spaces is on the “wrong side of history”, then she will advocate for the TIMs.
Exactly, it's a trap (harhar, unintended) for them, so-to-speak, and one that we both know they'll dive head-first into.
If they leave it, it will prosper - and they know it, so they're forced to fight it. Because the success of this club will speak more volumes than anything,
and when they fight it, even now I wouldn't even know how they'd construct their arguments, as;
a) mentioned before - there are more venues accessible to them on the same regard, b) it would really bring into light who holds autonomy over lesbians and their sanctity of space and culture. And that conversation, given the lack of favour and support for the T. Will also, not end well in their court.
Because, lets be real. Not a lot of people are mindlessly following their mantras anymore. The T has created a knot of pseudoscience, half-truths, and false promises, and at some point, people start pulling at loose strings. Their entire ideology hinges on this knot being upheld.
So yes, I'm very intrigued :`)
There are still plenty of private social clubs that exclude women (Freemasons, Order of the Moose, etc). We don't go banging on the doors of masonic lodges demanding entry; we know that even if we managed to sneak in with a fake mustache and trenchcoat, there's very little of interest for us in a drinking club full of old men congratulating each other on how great they are. TIFs aren't going out of their way to call these places horribly transphobic, either.
It's men that can't handle it when women exclude them, even when men wouldn't find the group interesting in the first place. Even if women had the most boring group imaginable to TIMs, like "Grannies Talk About Their Health Issues Club" that had a strict female-only policy, they'd go out of their way to tear it down. Not because they really wanted to show up and listen to elderly women talk about their memory loss and incontinence issues, but how dare they assume they can organize a space where men aren't allowed.
Male entitlement is one hell of a dangerous beast,
A bit unrelated, but something that seems to strike me as similar, my trad-dad would never want to be around my mother in his free time UNLESS she was with friends or on the phone. Then, like clockwork. He'd shamble his way to wherever she was, find a couch, chair, bed, floorspace to settle, and would spend the entire time listening into her conversations as if monitoring her,
Now, as to whether or not he actually is, I don't quite know -
It even comes up nowadays. When I call my mother for a conversation that I only want to have with her, she always has to step out or drive elsewhere to get away from him,
it always struck me as..odd.
Oh wow, that's so uncomfortable! I think a lot of men are insecure and think that when women want a private space to talk, they have to be talking about the men in their lives. But the reality is sometimes women just need a space to breathe. We're kinda seeing this with TIMs reacting to a woman-only club -- I've seen them posting things like "Can't believe they needed to make their own club just to talk shit about trans women" and it's hilarious and kind of sad that they think lesbians are so obsessed with them when most of us just want them to leave us alone!
We'd rather talk shit about them to their faces, so they know what we really think and they feel like the creepy rapey garbage they are.
Except they would resort to (totally not male) violence if we did.
This so much. It beyond disgusts me that so many men see all women as objects they’re supposed to have access to at all times, whenever and wherever. That kind of entitlement is pure evil.
There are women-only lodges.