Police in the British city of Portsmouth were slammed by free-speech advocates for arresting a Muslim-identifying, gender-fluid woman because she presented herself underneath her traditional Islamic garb as a Caucasian male.
The hitch was that the "woman" was actually a man who was dressing that way after police targeted white, male Englishmen for protesting against immigration but seem to have a soft spot for migrants who come to the UK and have no interest in assimilating to the culture and customs.
"He identifies as a lady!" shouted supporters as he was carted off by police. “It suddenly became illegal to wear a burkha in the UK?” asked Tommy Robinson, cofounder of the anti-immigration English Defence League.
The 76-year-old in a burqa was arrested under the Crime and Policing Act, a recently passed British bill that bans face coverings in protests but conveniently carves out an exception for religious apparel like the burqas and niqabs worn by Muslim women who subscribe to religious modesty dress codes.
While initial reports indicated that the individual was let off, subsequent updates showed police making the arrest. It turns out that when they want to, the British police can tell a woman from a man. This is the same police force that parades with Pride and touts their LGBTQ bonafides by calling men who claim to be women, even male rapists, "women."
The bill, passed in April, drastically expands police power, despite backlash that it would fuel further incidents of two-tiered policing.
Critics have said that under the Labour Party currently in power, terrorist organizations like Antifa have been given carte blanche to engage in disruptive activism, while their conservative counterparts, including Robinson’s group and others seeking immigration reform, have faced extreme crackdowns.
The protest in Portsmouth was in direct response to the arrival of some 140 boats in the southern coastal town, with thousands of demonstrators attending, many waving British flags and chanting “stop the boats.”
The British Home Office estimated that there had been 16,513 arrivals this year, as of Sept. 1, although it boasted that the number was down by around 40 percent over the previous year.
“We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour [sic] we saw in Portsmouth last night,” a spokesperson for the Home Office said in a statement in response to the demonstration.
Women's rights campaigners in the UK have been diligent about pushing for recognition of women as opposed to including men who claim to be women as women. Women won a case before the UK High Court that finally defined women as adult human females, saying that men are not women and women do not have to allow men who claim to be women into women's sex segregated spaces. LGBTQ activists had claimed that the Equality Act offering protections for women also allowed those protections for men who claim to be women. They claim that "trans women are women," even though they are men.
The hitch was that the "woman" was actually a man who was dressing that way after police targeted white, male Englishmen for protesting against immigration but seem to have a soft spot for migrants who come to the UK and have no interest in assimilating to the culture and customs.
"He identifies as a lady!" shouted supporters as he was carted off by police. “It suddenly became illegal to wear a burkha in the UK?” asked Tommy Robinson, cofounder of the anti-immigration English Defence League.
The 76-year-old in a burqa was arrested under the Crime and Policing Act, a recently passed British bill that bans face coverings in protests but conveniently carves out an exception for religious apparel like the burqas and niqabs worn by Muslim women who subscribe to religious modesty dress codes.
While initial reports indicated that the individual was let off, subsequent updates showed police making the arrest. It turns out that when they want to, the British police can tell a woman from a man. This is the same police force that parades with Pride and touts their LGBTQ bonafides by calling men who claim to be women, even male rapists, "women."
The bill, passed in April, drastically expands police power, despite backlash that it would fuel further incidents of two-tiered policing.
Critics have said that under the Labour Party currently in power, terrorist organizations like Antifa have been given carte blanche to engage in disruptive activism, while their conservative counterparts, including Robinson’s group and others seeking immigration reform, have faced extreme crackdowns.
The protest in Portsmouth was in direct response to the arrival of some 140 boats in the southern coastal town, with thousands of demonstrators attending, many waving British flags and chanting “stop the boats.”
The British Home Office estimated that there had been 16,513 arrivals this year, as of Sept. 1, although it boasted that the number was down by around 40 percent over the previous year.
“We condemn the intimidating and thuggish behaviour [sic] we saw in Portsmouth last night,” a spokesperson for the Home Office said in a statement in response to the demonstration.
Women's rights campaigners in the UK have been diligent about pushing for recognition of women as opposed to including men who claim to be women as women. Women won a case before the UK High Court that finally defined women as adult human females, saying that men are not women and women do not have to allow men who claim to be women into women's sex segregated spaces. LGBTQ activists had claimed that the Equality Act offering protections for women also allowed those protections for men who claim to be women. They claim that "trans women are women," even though they are men.
