Olympic medal winner Inga Thompson has evoked the memory of the suffragettes and feminist campaigners by saying she would happily go to jail for women’s rights to demand sex separated spaces and calling a man a “biological male’.
Thompson, who has been vocal in her support of JK Rowling over the SNP’s new hate crime law, said her opportunities came from generations of women that have “fought for my rights” who were jailed and beaten.
Speaking on GB News, she said: “I made the comment I would happily go to jail for JK Rowling or for what we're fighting for with women's rights. And I think it's really important that this has been highlighted because we need to see the attack that's happening on women.
“This is happening on so many different layers and levels: I was threatened last year for just calling a man a biological male when we were talking about sports.
“Watching this hate crime come through is disturbing and yet at the same time, I think that is good because it's getting out there in public.
“This hasn't shocked me at all. We've been watching this going on for years, it has become a hate crime for women to ask for our own sex separated spaces and by calling a biological male a male.
“We're being threatened, we're being called transphobic and white supremacist and Nazis and fascist and bigot and the list goes on.
“When you don't have an argument, you start throwing out slurs and women are standing up to this and we're standing strong.
“Every law is up for interpretation and when you come up against this when you just say ‘biological male’, they're calling it a hate crime. To state a truth, to state a fact, can now be considered a hate crime.
“And that is the problem with this bill - it will be taken to another level to silence women. And that's what we're seeing here and there's already been the threat with JK [Rowling] and then they decided, for whatever reason, they're not going to pursue it. But it will be pursued. Maybe they just don't want to go after JK.
“It'll be people like me, I've already been threatened with this. And we're seeing this more and more, even in the United States. So it's going to be the people like me that will be threatened and we're watching it on every layer possible.
“We’re watching nurses get threatened for stating biological facts. We're watching all the women athletes get threatened. I've been warned by safe sport to not call a biological male, a biological male.
“When people asked me the question about why go to jail for this, the reason is because of generations of women before me that have fought for my rights and they have gone to jail and they've been beaten and they've been told to be quiet.
“You look at our women's right to vote, women's rights for abortion, everything that my grandmothers before me fought for. Many of them went to jail.
“And so, if that's what it takes to continue for women to have equal opportunities, I'm willing to put my hand up and say, ‘I will fight.’”
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