News / Politics
Green councillors accused of being ‘intimidating and offensive’ by holding up pro-trans placards
Green councillors held up pro-trans rights banners and Pride flags from their seats in City Hall as a war of words with women’s rights campaigners reignited.
The confrontational scenes at a full council meeting on followed a walkout by several of the party’s councillors as gender critical activists were making statements from the public gallery at at the previous meeting in September.
On both occasions, elected Green representatives accused the members of the public of transphobic and offensive comments.
In response, the campaigners said the councillors’ placards, held up while they were speaking, were “intimidating and offensive”.
Disgraceful coordinated behaviour by councillors in the @BristolCouncil chamber tonight, trying to intimidate and disrupt women asking legitimate questions from the public gallery.
They have no shame. pic.twitter.com/HUZgRtm33M— ShirleyBassey (@Shirleysvoice3) November 4, 2025
The row centres on a ruling by the Supreme Court in April that the word ‘woman’ in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex at birth and that this does not include transgender women.
At least two Green councillors at City Hall identify as trans, while there is a transgender woman on the opposition Labour benches.
One member of the public, Wendy Stephenson, told the meeting: “People with ovaries are women, people who give birth are women, people who need maternity services are women.
“Why is Bristol City Council so keen on erasing women?”
Another, Elaine Hutton said: “Last month, violent trans activists inflicted serious damage on a conference centre in Brighton where women were meeting.
“The local Green MP blamed the women attending the conference for provoking the men and suggested that the local council should not have let the hall out to these women.”
At that point, Green group leader, Emma Edwards, calling a point of order, said: “Calling trans women men is highly transphobic and it should be called out.
“This is absolutely unacceptable language to use around trans people.”
Hutton continued: “This happened shortly after trans activists marched through Bristol carrying a banner calling for transwomen to be armed.
“This was part of a pattern of violent trans activism in Bristol.
“The Brighton MP’s words resemble our own Green councillors’ response to women asserting their sex-based rights.
“Bristol City Council’s unlawful trans inclusion policy sets the tone for councillors’ behaviour and has enabled an environment where women’s rights are not protected.
“Now that we have the Supreme Court judgement, when is the council going to stand up for women’s sex-based rights and withdraw its unlawful policy?”
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The final flashpoint came when Phoebe Beedell asked council leader Tony Dyer whether the councillors who walked out of the previous full council meeting would listen with “respect, attention and tolerance to the lawfully expressed views of people they disagree with, including questions and statements from women who have concerns about the erosion and disregard of their hard-won, sex-based rights?”.
In a written reply before the meeting, Dyer said that the council “listens for all views and concerns raised by citizens”.
Dyer added: “However, whilst gender critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010 as a philosophical belief, this does not mean that other people must remain in a space where they feel offended or distressed by those views.
“Whether to remain in such a space is a matter of personal, individual choice for councillors or anyone else to make for themselves.”
Following this reply up from the public gallery, Beedell asked: “I would like to know which councillors here will positively tolerate listening to women with respect who express sex-realist views and who may quote the Supreme Court ruling that trans women are biological men and trans men are biological women?”
Dyer replied: “I am prepared to listen to any statements and any comments but I also respect the right of those who feel that those statements are offensive and therefore may want to take actions of their own.
“This is a democracy. You have the right to come here and make statements (and) councillors have the right to decide whether those statements are offensive to them and how they want to respond.”
Beedell asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the intimidating placards that are being held by councillors? I find it rather intimidating and offensive.”
Dyer responded: “I do not find the LGBTIQ+ flag offensive.”
Main photo: Green Party
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