A student who was removed from Leeds Student Radio, after an interview with a detransitioner, says she hopes today’s court ruling will "send shock waves around other common law countries".Following a challenge by campaign group For Women Scotland, Lord Hodge of the Supreme Court declared that the Equality Act 2010 refers to "a biological woman and sex".FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00To join us to discuss this judgment is the gender critical campaigner Connie Shaw who was suspended from Leeds Student Radio due to her gender critical views.
00:09Connie, good morning to you. I can see from the smile on your face, the smile on your face, you're very happy and congratulations.
00:17Thank you, although it's not really me that should be, it's for Women's Scotland to have done this and like Susan Smith was just saying,
00:23all the women across the country who have for many years campaigned for this legal right to be able to say that women should be able to have single sex spaces
00:31and exclude all men no matter how they identify from their spaces.
00:35I mean, I don't really have much to say other than flipping get in and yeah, I just can't stop smiling.
00:41It's just so emotional and such a mementous day for women's rights in this country and hopefully will send shockwaves around other common law countries
00:49such as Australia, which are having real issues with women's rights there at the moment too, so hopefully this will have an effect on the whole world.
00:57Connie, you were suspended, as we mentioned, from Leeds Student Radio. What did you say that was deemed so controversial?
01:05Well, I wasn't actually told exactly what it was that I had said that resulted in my permanent removal from my committee position,
01:13but the Free Speech Union and I believe it was to do with my gender critical views
01:17and this whole case is particularly emotional for me because Susan Smith was the first gender critical...
01:23Susan Smith, who's one of the directors for Women's Scotland, who just gave an interview after the ruling then,
01:30she was one of the first, I think, the first gender critical feminists that I ever spoke to
01:34and realised that actually I did think this was a huge issue.
01:37And me and my three other presenters on Politics Hour on Leeds Student Radio almost exactly this time last year
01:45interviewed her on Leeds Student Radio and that episode can still be listened to on SoundCloud
01:52and it is the most listened to episode on the Leeds Student Radio SoundCloud, which I feel very smug about.
01:59And now we've won!
02:01And what were you accused of being?
02:05Turf.
02:05Well, when I was suspended, I was suspended on the basis that essentially I was a health and safety risk to other members,
02:14that I hadn't acted in a selfless way and that I brought LSR into disrepute.
02:20And therefore the idea was that you...
02:23I'm interested in who had made the complaint then.
02:27Was there, is there some very vocal trans activists within your university at Leeds,
02:33within the Student Union, who made it their work to get you cancelled?
02:39Well, I will never know who it was who made the complaint.
02:42Chilling.
02:43Yeah, I will never be told.
02:45But I would say that it's not that there are certain trans activists within the Student Union,
02:52but gender ideology is so embedded within university culture that it was just bound to happen.
02:57I wasn't surprised at all when it did happen, which is why I'd already purchased my Free Speech Union membership,
03:02basically in preparation, because I knew that what I was saying,
03:06even though what I was saying wasn't being broadcast on Leeds Student Radio,
03:09it was my own personal podcast, and my own sub-stack and social media,
03:14I knew that I could cause people some upset, and I did.
03:18So, yeah, I wasn't surprised at all.
03:20But, like, yeah, I don't know who made the complaint, and I doubt I'll ever know.
03:24Connie, would you be keen to go back onto Leeds Student Radio?
03:28Um, well, I...
03:30Not particularly, I mean...
03:33Go on.
03:33Come to LBC, if you can.
03:35LBC? You mean GB News?
03:38How dare you, Stephen Pound?
03:40No, they take people from the Student Radio to go back on.
03:44To have your say...
03:44Pardon, sorry?
03:45Why not go back on and have your say?
03:47You've been vindicated, after all, by this court ruling.
03:49Well, not necessarily, because they didn't overturn my appeal.
03:55When I appealed the decision, it wasn't overturned.
03:58But, I think...
04:00I mean, they said that if I wanted to return and run again for committee,
04:03I'd have to write an apology to the station.
04:06Oh, Connie!
04:07Well, you know what?
04:08Don't do that.
04:09Their loss is sub-stack, clearly, and GB News is game.
04:13We want you here on our panel talking such common sense,
04:16because the wheel is turning on this issue.
04:19And you have played a part in this.
04:20I know you said you aren't involved in the court case.
04:22But anybody who's stuck their neck out,
04:24any woman who's swam against the tide,
04:27should be celebrating this morning.
04:28So, good for you.
04:29Connie Shaw.