Shocking video footage is circulating on social media following the verbal abuse suffered by a comedian and writer at a LGB Alliance conference in London. The LGB Alliance, a controversial charity which says it is dedicated to lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals, held a conference in October last year where the incident took place. Trigger warning, the article contains an embedded video of the distressing altercation.
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In the footage, Jen Ives, a comedian and writer, can be seen being verbally abused by an attendee of the event and labelled a "pervert". In the clip, she can be heard being verbally abused by a "raging" man at the event and is purposefully mis-gendered several times. During the incident Jen was also labelled "mentally ill".
The event, which took place on October 21 last year, was the charity's first major conference, held in the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in London. Journalist Owen Jones took to Twitter to show his support for Jen stating: "This is a truly disgusting transphobic rant, and underlines the sort of hatred which the 'LGB Alliance' nurtures and attracts."
Founded in 2019, the LGB Alliance has been at the forefront of a number of controversies and public scrutiny. You can read more about that here. Many prominent transgender activists and members of the LGBT+ community claim the LGB Alliance "disregards trans people" and aims to sideline the group from LGBT+ activism. You can subscribe to our LGBT+ newsletter with news from around the UK here.
"One of the reasons why I went is because I found out they just received charity status", Jen told WalesOnline. "I was shocked about that, because I don't think they've demonstrated why they should be a charity. Although a lot of people are being drawn to the video, I think for me the one thing that stood out was just how sparing they were with their empathy.
"Usually, most charities want to help people and pretty much everyone around me sort of took this guy's side instantly without any conversation with me. Since the event I've been accused as a liar, being a pervert for recording women in the toilets and antagonising people at the event, which I didn't do. I'm so happy this video is out, because at least people can see that I wasn't lying now.
"I mean, the fact that has charity status is crazy to me, because it's literally devised and created as a way to exclude a certain group of people. Not many charities do that. They claim that their conference wasn't about trans people, it's about inclusion and rights of LGB people specifically, but I was there I sat in the talk, I had access to their literature. I spoke to every stall that was there. It's very clear that that primary motive is to delegitimise trans people."
When asked to comment, the LGB Alliance praised the security at the conference for stepping in but did not address the abuse allegations directly, nor condemn the actions. A spokesperson said: "All LGB Alliance events including our annual conference are open to anyone, regardless of political views or affiliation. We are of course aware that issues such as sex-segregated facilities provoke very strong feelings on both sides of the debate, and we would like to thank the conference attendees and security team who stepped in to defuse the situation.”
