Oh good, a statement on “transphobic abuse.” We need more of those.

Herstory Festival is a two-day celebration of women’s lives and experiences, bringing together different backgrounds, voices and experiences to support women’s rights and the historic progress made. The festival will incorporate the contributions and voices of over 400 women, and will feature the work of 17 poets, 8 musicians, 8 speakers and 30 artists.

Following online promotion of the festival, one of the artists featuring in the festival has been subjected to transphobic abuse on social media. Poet in the City has also been criticised for including this artist’s work as part of the range of perspectives that feature.

What this dishonest “statement” leaves out of course is that the artist in question is a man. Poet in the City was criticised for including a man in a festival it calls a “celebration of women’s lives and experiences.” Men don’t have women’s lives and experiences. Include men by all means if you want to, but then don’t say it’s a celebration of women’s anything.

Poet in the City is a progressive organisation working across a range of communities, and together with our partners, we condemn transphobia, and all forms of hate and discrimination in the strongest possible terms, and work to break down barriers where they occur. The Herstory Festival programme reflects on this, among many other narratives, through poetry, performance and discussion.

It’s not hate to say that men are not women. It is a kind of discrimination but only in the neutral, factual sense of telling things apart. There’s nothing wrong with saying men are not women, cats are not flowers, cars are not mangoes.

Wait who is it who’s “discriminatory” here?