Dear JK,

We are the oldest anti-rape centre in the country and operate a transition house for battered women and their children. Our organization is familiar with the backlash you are experiencing for speaking out in defence of women-only spaces and the misogyny inherent in it. For over two decades our centre has withstood and refused to back down to the legal, economic, and social pressures meant to coerce us into changing our position of politically organizing, and providing services, premised on the shared experience of being born female in a sexist society.

We commend you for revealing yourself as a woman who has resisted and survived male violence as an act of solidarity with other women. We are reinforced by your public stance of the necessity to protect women-only spaces and hope that other women are emboldened by your bravery, despite the heavy handed discouragement that followed. You have our support and sisterhood.

In solidarity,  

The collective of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter