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In October 2025, Brighton witnessed a stark confrontation between feminist and trans activist groups, culminating in the vandalism of the FiLiA conference venue by the direct-action group Bash Back. This incident has sparked widespread debate over the boundaries of free speech, the safety of women-only spaces, and the tactics employed in the defense of trans rights.

In the seaside city of Brighton, where the English Channel laps against shores long synonymous with progressive ideals, a gathering of women became the target of deliberate aggression last weekend. The FiLiA conference—Europe’s largest feminist event, drawing over 2,400 delegates from around the world—convened from October 10 to 12, 2025, to confront the unyielding realities of women’s lives: domestic abuse, sexual violence, lesbian safety, anti-racism, health equity, and political organizing. What should have been a sanctuary for sisterhood instead became a stage for intimidation, vandalism, and moral inversion, carried out by activists who cloaked their belligerence in the guise of righteous victimhood. This was no spontaneous protest; it was an orchestrated assault on women’s autonomy, executed through the psychological tactic known as DARVO—Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender—flipping aggressor and victim roles to confuse and shame the true defenders.

FiLiA, the Feminist International Leadership and Action charity, has championed women’s voices and sex-based rights since its founding in 1982 as Feminists in London. Rebranded in 2019, the organization organizes workshops, advocacy campaigns, and international solidarity events, explicitly excluding male speakers to foster unmediated discourse. Alumni include figures like J.K. Rowling, and sessions routinely interrogate male violence without apology. In Brighton, hosted at the council-owned Brighton Centre, FiLiA aimed to advance this mission amid escalating threats to female-only spaces. Organizers preemptively requested a Public Spaces Protection Order from Brighton and Hove Council to mitigate anticipated disruptions, only to be rebuffed—a decision that left delegates exposed to the very dangers the conference sought to address.

The aggression began hours before the conference doors opened on October 10. Activists associated with the direct-action group Bash Back vandalized the venue: windows were shattered, purple paint—symbolizing queer defiance—splashed across entrances, and graffiti labeled FiLiA “transphobic” and worse. As women arrived on Saturday, masked protesters surrounded them, chanting, jeering, filming without consent, and blocking access to the entrance. One man was bundled into a police van amid the chaos. Sussex Police launched an investigation, but the damage was done: a conference on male violence against women had itself been disrupted by male violence.

This incident exemplifies DARVO in practice. Attacks were simultaneously denied or minimized as mere “direct action,” while FiLiA was cast as inherently bigoted for prioritizing biological sex in discussions of oppression. Reversal of victimhood followed swiftly: women convening to safeguard their rights were recast as provocateurs, deserving retaliation. Green MP Sian Berry’s comments faulting organizers for “inflaming division” exemplify this inversion, as if women’s speech is a privilege revocable at the whim of the offended. Online, Bash Back celebrated targeting “hate groups” like the LGB Alliance and Transgender Trend, further amplifying the narrative of moral righteousness while eroding accountability. Eyewitness reports indicate that many of the aggressors were male, cross-dressing in the guise of protest—a striking irony in a city branding itself a “City of Sanctuary.”

The Brighton disruption is part of a broader pattern of hostility toward women’s spaces, where the veneer of inclusivity is used to justify exclusion. Militant transactivism often prioritizes gender self-identification over material sex realities, demanding access to refuges, prisons, and sports at the expense of female safety. By framing sex-based protections as inherently “transphobic,” these tactics erode the foundations of feminism: the recognition that sex is the axis of patriarchal power and a critical factor in protecting women from violence. The FiLiA delegates were not debating abstract theory—they were strategizing for survival against rape, trafficking, and erasure. To disrupt their forum is to reinforce the patriarchal dynamics they resist.

The path forward requires vigilance and clarity. DARVO’s manipulations must be unmasked; women’s sex-based rights defended without apology; and discourse reclaimed from those who mistake volume and spectacle for moral authority. Only then can women gather safely, unmolested, to build the liberation FiLiA envisions—a liberation grounded in reality, accountability, and the enduring fight against male violence.

📚 References

• “Council refused feminists security after trans activists smashed venue.” The Times, October 10, 2025. (The Times)
• “Trans activists vandalise feminist conference.” Yahoo News Canada, October 10, 2025. (Yahoo News)
• “Trans group ‘BASH BACK’ targets Brighton Centre – FiLiA has ‘blood on their hands’.” Scene Magazine, October 10, 2025. (Scene Magazine)
• “FiLiA Conference Sparks Trans Rights Protests In Brighton.” Evrimagaci, October 10, 2025. (Evrim Ağacı)
• “FiLiA.” Wikipedia, October 2025. (Wikipedia)
• “Bash Back!” Wikipedia, October 2025. (Wikipedia)