Police are investigating a protest in which a fire alarm was set off at Jubilee Library, leading to hundreds of people being evacuated.
Trans Pride Brighton CEO Sarah Savage smashed the fire alarm in protest at an event being held by Sisters Salon at the library on Saturday afternoon.
She described the group, which has campaigned for single sex spaces, as a “notoriously hateful group” – a claim disputed by the group as untrue, upsetting and libellous.
The meeting was a consultation about women’s health held on behalf of the NHS.
In a video released on Instagram, Miss Savage said she was arrested but then de-arrested and let go.
Sussex Police said it was still investigating allegations of criminal damage and a false report of a fire.
In the video, Miss Savage said: “I was walking home past the library and something went in my head and I knew I could not let it go.
“So I walked into the library and I found the room where they were having their meeting of exclusion, of transphobia, and I hit the fire alarm.
“Everybody had to leave the meeting. All of the terfs had to file out of the door while library security grabbed hold of me and pushed me around.
“I want to send a message to the anti-trans, to the tranphobics to the terfs. I want to tell them that trans people are strong, trans people are fierce.
“If you wish to remove our rights, we won’t let it go without a fight, without a struggle, without defiance.”
In a statement released yesterday, Sisters Salon said: “We believe protests about women holding single-sex events are rooted in misogyny and have no place in our diverse city.
“The single-sex nature of our meetings is legitimate and in line with equality law.
“At a meeting on women’s health, a single sex space is especially important as it empowers women to speak freely about our own health issues and focus specifically on our own needs.
“Maliciously setting off a fire alarm goes beyond a simple protest – it is unduly provocative, stops women from exercising their Article Eleven right to freedom of assembly. Moreover, triggering false fire alarms is rightly a criminal act.
“This, together with subsequent inflammatory statements on social media only serves to whip up hostility, disharmony and fear against our group.”
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Emergency services attended Jubilee Library in Jubilee Square, Brighton, after a fire alarm was activated at 3.10pm on Saturday 17 May.
“Upon arrival, officers found a woman had been detained by private security staff.
“Following an assessment of the ongoing threat and risk posed at that time, no arrests were made but the woman was escorted from the premises.
“An investigation into allegations of criminal damage and a false report of fire is progressing, and any other potential offences will be reviewed as part of the wider investigation.”
Acting like a spoilt child. Did they stamp their feet and hold their breath until they passed out as well?
I think this group of people are so bigoted and ignorant it’s difficult to believe they are being serious. I’ll keep it short, savage by name savage by nature, ( if that is her/his real name, which I doubt.) Keep going sisters!
I don’t understand why ANYONE should be affronted by women getting together to discuss women’s health (or anything they wish to for that matter!) and rightly being inclusive for trans men ie biological women to be involved, never mind that this was an NHS supported event and all users of the whole library were affected; creche facilities, students, tourists etc These male activists have lost the plot and are losing support rapidly – the trans friends I have are (quietly) fed up and deeply embarrassed by this kind of behaviour – the council (stop giving our money to his Trans Pride group for starters, his behaviour is abhorrent, pathetic and unlawful – a disgrace.Trans Pride should consider removing him asap) and Sussex Police need to grow a pair… Fed Up of Hove
The police have a history of turning a blind eye to intimidation by so called ‘transactivists’ ( men’s rights activists) in this city.
What about the rights of biological women to not to have to share a space. Some biological women have survived abusive and got out of abusive relationships. Its time these women were stood up for. I am not anti
Gay, just anti “entitled” people!
This is nothing to do with gay people, just with an aggressive man who claims to be a woman.
My understanding is that the venue was in a private space on an upper floor. Venue was only released to ticket holders shortly before. The ‘just passing and saw red’ defense doesn’t stand up. Sarah Savage must have known they were there. Lends credence to the statement on the website that they have to hire security for their meetings. A community womens group with a creche need security to lawfully meet in Brighton in 2025.
This type of behaviour by trans activists is exactly why the trans lobby is losing so much support. Trans women will never experience women’s health issues so it is perfectly reasonable to have a health event for women. Pease hold an event to discuss the health issues of trans women Sarah Savage, and I can promise you no woman would disrupt it. Not helpful that the police refer to Savage as a woman
A prison sentence and a hefty fine is in order here. Essential resources could had been diverted from a real emergency due to this attention seeker.
Just a fine is fine in this case. Usually a flat £500 or so, if I remember correctly, in the first instance.
A fine by itself is pointless when it will just be crowdfunded, a hefty dose of community would suffice as an alternative to prison.
Hence, “in the first instance.”
If i was trans then i imagine i’d feel the same emotion about this group of women. They are hiding behind womens rights to shield their trans phobic agendas. What about a trans woman who has lived as a female since the age of 11? Been sexually assaulted by a cis man in a nightclub. Got involved with a man who then regularly physically and emotionally assaulted her, every time he was drunk for over 10 years. Has ‘nice tits’ shouted at her from a man leaning out of a car window. Has her bum pinched in a crowded bar, which she finds extremely triggering , as it makes her instantly recall the sexual assault that she experienced in the nightclub when she was 18. Why can’t she join the women’s group and learn about her rights as a woman not to be sexually assaulted? Her rights as a woman not to be insulted from a man in a passing car. She may have been born without a womb but she shares a lot of the same lived experience as other women in that group. Why not welcome her in rather than closing the door in her face.
It was a meeting addressing female health needs. Why would any male, however they identify, be so cross they couldn’t come that they’d purposefully try to find out where it was and then get a building evacuated to stop it happening?
Have you ever actually been close to someone who is trans and has real lived experienced ? Perhaps you know someone and don’t even know that they are trans. I was working somewhere recently and was working alongside a young man. I had absolutely no idea he was a trans man until he told me when he was describing something about him and his wife’s family journey. Honestly , all the time i was working with him, i was speaking to a lovely young man. A young man who walks along the street and is treated like a man. A young man who would look very odd entering a ladies loo or a ladies changing room at the swimming pool. There is no way that he belongs in a women’s health group, even though he was born female. He is 100% a man. It’s a sad world where we exclude those who want to belong.
The event specifically included trans men
Once a bully always a bully.
Whataboutery at its finest. Start a trans group. Campaign against male violence.
Much easier for these males to threaten violence towards though women isnt it. The hypocrisy and entitlement of these male activists is astounding. This was a meeting about women’s health. Puberty, contraception, fertility and menopause. Women’s bodies!
People who identify as trans have plenty of groups in Brighton and their meetings are never disrupted by feminists. This was a meeting specifically about women’s health and therefore was not relevant at all for men who identify as women, but still it was too much for this male ‘trans’ person who clearly thinks women should have nothing for themselves. Luckily we have rights in law to women-only spaces. Other people should respect this and leave women alone.
I went to the meeting and it was absolutely not hateful to anyone. People like “SS” should not be allowed to get away with his blatent lies and she should absolutely be prosecuted for his crime. There were a lot of people of all ages in that Library and what he did was dangerous.
Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a trans person scorn’d.
Have you ever actually been close to someone who is trans and has real lived experienced ? Perhaps you know someone and don’t even know that they are trans. I was working somewhere recently and was working alongside a young man. I had absolutely no idea he was a trans man until he told me when he was describing something about him and his wife’s family journey. Honestly , all the time i was working with him, i was speaking to a lovely young man. A young man who walks along the street and is treated like a man. A young man who would look very odd entering a ladies loo or a ladies changing room at the swimming pool. There is no way that he belongs in a women’s health group, even though he was born female. He is 100% a man. It’s a sad world where we exclude those who want to belong.
It doesn’t matter how someone looks. Their biology is internal and this meeting was about female bodies!
This was calculated and premeditated. Not some ejit throwing their dummy out of the pram.
At the most this individual should be hauled up in the local magistrates court and face some sort of punishment to set a precedent.
It’s only a matter of time before a member of this militant lobby group either causes serious harm to someone or worse?
Your trans friend is a woman and was welcome in the group. Get your facts straight.
Do you really think that people who have lived in Brighton for years have never met a trans person? Of course we have. Grow up
I believe the library staff acted in a completely professional manner with what happened, and I personally think Sarah should be held up for assault, criminal damage, and breach of the peace. This act was premeditated. She must’ve had intel that they were having a meeting and to go looking for the group. Protests are fine, and people are entitled to have their views, but when you act in such a manner like Sarah has, the person then needs to be held accountable. Setting a fire alarm off in a library where there are young children, people with special needs, disabled personnel and more. She was clearly not thinking of the effects it can and may have had on them.
Furthernore, why did she pull the fire alarm? Was it to disrupt the meeting? To get the outside for an act of violence? Who knows!
Genetics trumped by magical thinking.
But hey don’t let facts get in the way of fiction.
This is nothing to do with gay people, just with an aggressive man who claims to be a woman.