The “Speakers Corner” was cornered at Independence Mall by well-organized opposition who brought bodies and drowned them out with music, dance, and chants.

PHILADELPHIA, PA — An event organized as a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) “Speakers Corner” came to Independence Mall last Sunday and not only were locals not having it, they routed the event in well under an hour’s time. 

The Philly event was announced on Eventbrite and elsewhere where it was recognized and responded to. Accordingly the TERFs had maybe 10 people while the counter protestors came in the dozens, not necessarily including the Queer Dance Party that drowned the TERF Speakers out.

Online, the organizers and speakers here were identified as Amy E. Sousa,  Gabrielle Clark, and Kara Dansky, among others. Dansky has Philadelphia connections through law school and has also appeared on television with Tucker Carlson. 

The TERFs readily seemed surprised at the event resistance, it’s all there to see on available video. Sometimes they got physical, but the “alarm” was evident. In fact, they called the police as police scanner material shows. They were “afraid” and the Po-po showed up and conducted a perimeter operation for them. Snowflakes!

Why the “alarm?” Well, by way of complaint,  there was a “wall of sound,” and “lesbians,”  and assertions about “our right to speak.” In contra, there was the structured beat of drums and tambourines with the mere uniform chant of “TERFs GO HOME” throughout almost all of the event. 

But the TERFs continued to rhetoricize against gender affirming care, and claimed that “gender identity is a preposterous concept.” 

Gender identity comments were not the only unusual thing though, TERF speakers — in the shadow of Independence Hall — brought up misapplications of the Declaration of Independence, (“D of I”) such as numbered “Articles,” connections to the U.S. Constution (completely skipping the Articles of Confederation, “A of C”) and more. 

(Reminder:  the Declaration of Independence was, ultimately, a wholly group-edited document (Jefferson got drunk and stuff); the Articles of Confederation didn’t create a truly unified State; and, dethen as a failed result of the A of C, the U.S. Constution only came to be *13 years* after the D of I, not including the first Bill of Rights.)

Yet while presented opposition here — which went through the week in online spaces — sought permit answers from TERFs, the fact is, small gatherings at Independence Mall do not require permits. 

The next announced TERF event by this group and their allies is in Pittsburgh, PA, on September 4th, 2022.