The organisers of tonight’s Reclaim the Night march in Perth have rejected concerns raised by activist Rebecca Leighton that their event is “transphobic and ‘whorephobic”.
Following OUTinPerth’s publication of an interview with Reclaim the Night – Perth’s spokesperson Anastasia Ward, well known Trans* rights and sex worker advocate Rebecca Leighton criticised the event.
Posting on OUTinPerth’s Facebook page Leighton labeled the event “transphobic” and “whorephobic” and called on Green MLC Lynn MacLaren to not speak at the event.
Leighton is scheduled to speak at the Fremantle based ‘Reclaim the Night’ event. She tells OUTinPerth that the Fremantle event was created because in previous years the Perth event had not been welcoming of transgender people.
“Reclaim the Night Fremantle was explicitly created as a trans-friendly and sex worker-friendly event for people who wanted to support the idea of Reclaim the Night but did not feel safe at Reclaim the Night Perth,” Leighton said.
Leighton said that it was not possible for the Perth version of the event to be a safe space for the trans community.
Anastasia Ward, the spokesperson for Reclaim the Night – Perth, has said that Leighton’s comments are disappointing.
“I’m surprised and appalled by these comments,” said Ward, “It’s probably coming from a good place and she’s trying to protect a section of the community but I think it’s totally misguided. As we’ve said before trans* women are totally welcome, to come and join in the march, who am I or anyone else to say who is and isn’t a woman.”
“We’ve made a committee decision on this topic, trans*women are women, all women are welcome,” Ward said, “If we’d have put on our invitation trans* women are also welcome I think that would have been demeaning.”
Lynn MacLaren, the Greens MLC for Southern Metro confirmed that she would still be speaking at the Perth event,
“Reclaim the Night has been a successful event that has empowered women since 1979 in working to stop domestic violence. I will remain focused on its main objective, to end all violence against women.
“Well before I became a Greens MP I have participated in Reclaim the Night events. This year I was invited to speak at the Perth event some time ago and accepted gratefully. I wish I could get to both events. I hope there is a good turnout in both Perth and Fremantle.
MacLaren said the community needs to work together to reduce worrying statistics of men sexually attacking women.
The MP said she believed the organisers of the Perth event had been forward about it being a trans* friendly event and that she had never witnessed any transphobic behaviour at either the Perth or Fremantle event.
“Hopefully this event will raise awareness of lacking crisis accommodation for women, this includes trans* women. We all need to band together and support one another,” MacLaren said.
Sarah Ross, the spokesperson for the Fremantle version of the event said their event was open to any gender identification and had a particular focus on being welcoming to the trans* community.
“Reclaim the Night – Fremantle is open to anyone of any gender identification with a particular emphasis on welcoming trans-women and sex workers. We will be having a trans speaker to talk about violence specifically faced by trans women, as well as a woman to talk about violence faced by sex workers,” said Ross.
OIP Staff
Reclaim the Night -Perth is on in the Perth Cultural Centre from 6pm tonight, while the Fremantle event is occurring in Kings Square, Fremantle from 6:30pm.
