A trans activist group smashed windows at the Brighton Centre last night in protest at a feminist conference being held there this weekend.
Bash Back described some of the delegates at the Filia conference as “hate groups”, including Scottish Lesbians, one of the groups involved in April’s Supreme Court ruling that, under the Equality Act, woman means a biological female.
Filia called on Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns the Brighton Centre, to condemn the act, claiming the council had refused to issue a public space protection order to prevent vandalism and other violent protests.
BREAKING: BASH BACK TARGET FiLiA ANTI-TRANS CONFERENCE
The conference, whose alumni include J.K. Rowling, this year hosts hate groups LGBAlliance and Transgender Trend, along with the director of Scottish Lesbians, one of the groups responsible for April’s Supreme Court ruling. pic.twitter.com/BWljsS6rG5
— BASH BACK (@TransBashBack) October 10, 2025
The charity’s CEO Lisa-Marie Taylor said: “Brighton is proudly a City of Sanctuary and it is impossible to believe activity of this sort could be tolerated.
“Despite this, we have heard today that Brighton and Hove City Council has rejected FiLiA’s public space protection order which we submitted in advance to pre-empt behaviour and aggression of this sort.
“We call on the council to condemn last night’s antics and to acknowledge that to protest against FiLiA is to protest against women gathering to discuss their lives.
“It is shocking and saddening that a conference for women to discuss domestic abuse, sexual violence and lesbian safety has been met with smashed windows, graffiti and intimidation.”
Councillor Birgit Miller, the council’s cabinet member for culture, heritage and tourism, said: “The damage caused to the Brighton Centre overnight is unacceptable and has been reported to Sussex Police. The graffiti has been removed and the damaged windows made safe.
“We are a proud, trans-inclusive city committed to equality, dignity and respect for all and do not tolerate hate in any form.
“As a council we support the right to peaceful protest but it must remain within the law.
“Brighton and Hove is, and always will be, a place where diversity and inclusion is celebrated.”
“A public space protection order (PSPO) must meet statutory criteria, including a requirement for persistent or continuing activity, evidence gathering and for thorough public consultation to be completed.
“A request from Filia was made to consider a PSPO on Monday 6 October and the council was clear that the proposal did not meet the relevant legal tests or timescales.
“The council has always had the safety of all communities at the forefront of our planning and we liaised at length with organisers and the police to ensure safety and security measures are in place for this conference and the demonstrations expected.
“We have a zero-tolerance approach to any harassment of staff, people attending events at the Brighton Centre or damage to public buildings.”
Trans Pride Brighton said it was not involved but would not denounce the vandalism, adding: “We are deeply concerned about a possible retaliatory attack on the Trans Pride Centre and community safety remains our priority.
“Brighton is our home. We belong here. We are not going anywhere.”
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Police were called to the Brighton Centre in King’s Road, Brighton this morning (Friday 10 October) at around 4am following reports of vandalism.
“It was found that a number of windows had been smashed and spray painted.
“Officers are investigating the incident and encourage anyone who witnessed anything suspicious or who has any relevant information or footage to come forward.
“Information can be reported online or be dialling 101, quoting serial 136 of 10/10.”
Brighton and Hove City Council has been approached for comment.
Absolute morons
If you can’t make your point without violence and intimidation, it’s probably not a very good point.
Men, violently trying to prevent women from congregating, speaking and networking is what the Taliban do.
Shame on every single, misogynistic, masked fool. Shame.
So I’m assuming you think the suffragettes didn’t have a good point? Or those at the forefront of the American civil rights movement? Or even those fighting for gay and lesbian rights in this country just a few decades ago?
Non-violent direct action and criminal damage have always been part of social justice movements, especially when entirely peaceful methods have failed. The Suffragettes carried out a campaign of bombing and arson, killing at least four people, but without this kind of action the movement could far more easily have been ignored. Again, do you think this therefore means they didn’t have a very good point?
Oppressing freedom to speak and gather and misappropriation of others movements and others characteristics is not social justice-it’s an abuse of it. I’m intrigued to know what ‘entirely peaceful’ methods you think trans activists have exhausted given their no debate and everyone has to collude with the ideology or else stance.
The suffragette movement was to gain votes for women..50% of the population…the trans movement is a minority of men trying to claim female status while using violence against actual women who are still trying to free themselves from male violence. It’s just a bunch of nasty men oppressing feminists out of spite at the Supreme Court judgement…Trans activists are a tiny minority who are another ugly face of the patriarchy, who are jealous that they will never be women, so take it out on anyone who disagrees with their dogma.
Terroristic action, being made to intimidate a specific group of people. The true terrorists at the moment seem to be domestic.
This has nothing to do with trans, but everything to do with people who want to destabilise society. Same rentamob
Ok brownshirt.
Men dressed as women having a pop at women, can’t make this rubbish up,
So why did the council not put the requested protection if it was labour conference it would have been there, we have lots of no go areas for minority groups.How much is it going to cost to replace windows clean the graffiti more or less than bit of security shows Brighton on a really poor light.
If you try and comment on an issue like this, you are in danger of being seen as ‘taking sides’ in what is now a long running dispute between two angry sets of people. So many debates nowadays get polarised – where free speech is then lost.
It’s like when you have known a married couple for many years and they decide to split up. If you try and intervene, because you love them both as your long term friends, you can then become the subject of their anger just when you’re trying to help.
As a gay man who thinks there is no LGB without the T (or without the Q, or the other letters on our silly internet password), I hate it when the feminist Ls get in arguments with the radical Ts.
I want to bring them together, for peace talks.
I was a Sussex student in the 1970s, when feminism was blooming, and when younger women were first finding a voice – away from male decision making.
This was also the first time when men had been allowed to meet to talk about their/our feelings, and I was in a ‘men’s group’ at the time. (For sure, that was maybe just more blokes, trying to get in on the latest philosophical action. )
We had a guy join that men’s group, named Stephen, and we later realised he was trans, having being born a woman. We liked him as a person, and sometimes that’s all that matters.
Dr Stephen Whittle is now a father of three – and still a trans rights advocate. You can google his name.
Nowadays I have trans friends and feminist friends. It seems to me that most of the differences between each group are resolvable, once you take away the entrenched arguments – and the anger.
On topic, if you have got this far, I think the direct action on the Brighton Centre is inappropriate, and smashing windows is especially wrong, and does nothing to help or to advertise a cause. Venting your anger this way just makes matters worse.
In my own angry years, we protested outside British Home Stores in Churchill Square. BHS in Worthing had sacked a member of staff, Tony Whitehead, just because he was a gay man.
Under the direct action group, ‘The Pink Panthers’ we did wallpaper Brighton’s BHS windows with hand made posters – but we didn’t do anything that caused permanent damage. I’d say this was our act of anger, at a time when we had no other voice.
Note that in this newer case, the Brighton Centre itself had no part in any prejudicial behaviour, beyond taking the booking from a registered charity.
Will I now be cancelled, just for writing this?
Lighten up, people. Whatever works you live in, there’s more that connects us than divides us.
*whatever world you live in….
The only side dividing anyone is the violent thugs hounding women and smashing up property.
You are oversimplifying this by suggesting this is feminist v trans. It’s about women’s rights to gather and speak, and the threat perceived by men who like to pretend to be women along with other misogynists, when women dare to gather and speak up. It has much wider (and chilling) consequences for society if people are just allowed to intimidate and threaten people and destroy venues when they don’t agree with them. Why are some of LG community still so blinded by T, rather than acceptance of who someone really is T includes (medical) conversion of our gay and lesbian youth. LG activism was also not about bullying everyone to comply (thought and speech) to the fantasy that a man can just claim to be a woman, no debate.
Thank you for this, I’m too a gay man, admit to not understanding Trans, I like to think I’ve supported all under the umbrella of LGBTQ+ people’s and I go back to when it was GM. This vandalism does no favours, were they hijacked by some other elements? This does dampen my stand on this, which is sad, I remember the gay rights movement of the 70s police charge against us poofs. We preserved and worked hard lobbied hard and we are we are now. Vandalism only turns the public against you.
Mentally ill men dressed as women protesting real women talking about real womens issues! A crazy world!
This type of situation is always going to be somewhat difficult for the council to comment and act upon. This is especially the case as they are conflicted all the time the most senior councillor has a special place in her heart for the rather unusual type of blokes who caused this damage.
I’m confused. I thought these activists were supposed to be against ‘hate crimes’?
Vandalism, whilst it is a crime, us not a “hate crime”.
targeted a specific vulnerable group, and vandalising, screaming at them through megaphones, harassing them in an effort to terrifying them and stop them speak. Sounds like a hate crime to me. Women should be a protected class in law, that would help a lot of this nonsense.
I agree with Tony’s measured responses here, and Alison is also correct. The spirit of what’s been done is very much motivated by hatred, even if that is not reflected in law as a “hate crime”. I think morally, we are all feeling the same way.
Interestingly, the relatively new Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act 2023 could potentially cover this if proven that the actions taken were specifically against this group because they were female.
Violence against women is indefensible whatever form it takes so let’s call this out for what it is the an attempt to intimidate and silence women.
If ‘Trans’ people what to have a conference about there plight then great.
Disrupting Women who want discuss their situation is out of order…
‘Trans’ people are not women no matter how much they want.
I walked by on Saturday and saw a group of protestors shouting at a young woman who was having a panic attack while trying to enter the conference. FiLiA is not an anti-trans event; it has 250 speakers, and only about 5 had anything to do with trans, all of which views were very mild and allign with policy our goverment recently put in place to provide the bare minimum of protections to women. This group in Brighton deliberately spread misinformation on posters, claiming the conference was anti-trans, which is not true. They also vandalized the venue, filmed attendees, and spent the day shouting at women through megaphones.
What purpose does this kind of aggressive behaviour serve? It doesn’t represent the vast majority of trans people who live their lives peacefully, and it creates fear among women who want to discuss serious issues like preventing assault and domestic violence—the focus of nearly all the talks.
I’m disappointed that the local authorities did not provide the protection the conference requested. The harassment I witnessed could have been prevented if attendees’ right to gather safely had been respected. I believe women, like certain other protected groups, should have clear legal safeguards so they are protected from targeted harassment.
If the situation were reversed and an anti-trans group targeted a trans conference or an event focused on racial equality, there would likely be widespread concern and action. Women deserve the same protections, especially given the high rates of violence they face. The government should ensure women can attend these events safely.
Misogyny in pink. Bunch of weirdos.
The fact the council doesn’t act to protect women gathering- when it knows they are consistently targeted by trans activists- and then reiterates its trans inclusivity when the trans community (inevitably) attacks a venue enabling women to gather, highlights once again the risks to women and the extent of capture by the powers that be, in this city. And the cry bully tactics of the trans community epitomised again by trans pride failing to denounce the vandalism while claiming they are worried about retaliatory attacks 🥱. There is no excuse to not protect women and the venues they gather in next time BHCC or you will remain complicit in silencing women and promoting violence against women and girls. Not a good look protecting misogynistic bullies while claiming to be inclusive!
It comes from the top. I’m not sure what type of rose tinted glasses the leader of the council sees these people through but it’s disturbing.
Try being erased from society and facing daily abuse from a bunch of stupid trans haters. Trans rights are human rights. Trans men are men. Trans women are women. Keep fighting for liberation.
Just because people state biological reality, or that women have rights, does not mean they hate or are trying to erase ‘trans’ identifying people!! Ironically if anyone is being erased here, their sex, their language, their rights and protections, their right to gather and speak for themselves it is biological women, erased by trans activists and their allies, who are also the ones shutting down any discussion/debate on the matter: ‘no debate’. This attack on women’s right to gather and speak, and the other attacks like is the opposite of social justice, it is the age old problem of men (however they may identify) seeking to control women.