Lily Maynard

The first I heard of this month’s planned protest was when Amy Desir spoke about it at Reformers Tree at the end of April. I hadn’t seen Amy for ages, and it was great to hear she was ‘coming out of retirement’ to organise another protest at the ponds.

“Women have spoken; the Supreme Court has spoken, but the fight is not over. If anybody fancies a Bank Holiday Monday down at the Men’s Pond, I’ll be there next Monday. The Men’s Pond, because they’re still saying, ‘we’ll think about it’. Fuck that. The Supreme Court has spoken. We’re taking back our spaces and we’re proving it now.”

The City of London Corporation (CLC) is in charge of the ponds, and after the recent Supreme Court judgement, a spokesman told the Telegraph:

“The City Corporation is compliant with existing UK law. In line with other affected organisations, we are carefully considering the judgment and awaiting statutory guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.”

The paper continued:

“The London authority, which also oversees the neighbouring Hampstead Heath men’s and mixed ponds, confirmed its Self-ID policy would remain in effect at this time while it considered the implications of the Supreme Court judgement.”

The Supreme Court has, of course,has made things perfectly clear. a woman is a woman and always has been so. No made up imaginary woowoo about feelings and an inborn love of pink, just a biological woman who can have long hair or short, dresses or skirts, love men, women or both, perform as few or as many stereotypes as her circumstances command – all as an Adult Human Female, or ‘biological woman’. We all know what a woman is: we all came out of one, and it is getting harder and harder for TRAs to deny that fact. But it doesn’t stop some people – in this case the City of London Corporation-  from trying to convince us that a woman is actually a feeling in a man’s head. Or that a man is a feeling in a woman’s head.

Initially, news of the protest was spread by mouth and shared in a few local groups. The day before we were due to meet, I saw the Daily Mail had run an article entitled, “Bank holiday Man Day! Women’s rights campaigners set to wreak havoc on male pool at Hampstead Heath”.

 It was time to pull my banner out of the bottom of the box where it had been crumpled since 2022, and plug in the iron.

Protest at the Ponds

For those who don’t know the history of protests at the ponds, women’s groups have protested there twice before, in 2018 at the original ‘Man Friday’ protest organised by Amy and Hannah (aka Sweary Godmother)  and then again in 2022 at Venice’s ‘Let Women Swim’ protest.

You can read my piece about the 2018 protest here. and the Telegraph coverage from 2022 here.

Back to 2025

It was great news to hear that Hannah was also joining the protest. We met up in a pub near Gospel Oak, on the Bank Holiday Monday at noon, filling the tables outside; spilling onto the pavement as we waited for stragglers and put the final touches to costumes.  At her request, I dotted Amy’s ‘builder’s tea’ skullcap with black sharpie dots in an attempt to re-create the male pattern baldness look. A nice attention to detail, although the final result was hidden under her golden ‘thief’ crown, which was probably for the best, as it wasn’t my finest artistic moment.

In case you’d been wondering- you know you had- Amy’s costume was a nod to Charles Edward Lord, a prominent figure in the City of London Corporation who labours under the illusion that he is a genderless non-binary being. Here he is on the left, being his authentic self. (not my photo)

In 2018, Lord oversaw a consultation re allowing transwomen (aka men) into the women’s pond. The consultation results suggested swimmers showed support for the motion and it was passed, but ‘incomplete’ entries were not counted in the reckoning. This meant that those who didn’t answer the ‘gender identity’ question (among others) did not have their views considered. Overall, almost half the consultation admissions were ignored. The whole thing seemed a little dodgy to say the least, and Amy’s costume seemed an appropriate tribute.

The forecast was ‘chilly’, but the sun was popping its head in and out of the clouds.  After a quick drink some women changed into their costumes and, gathering forces, we set off to the Men’s Pond where we planned to take our bank holiday swim.

There were about 30 of us in attendance. As we walked through the park, we waved our banners and twirled our moustaches in the sunshine.

“What are they doing?” one bloke asked the woman he was with, eyeing the ‘no peens in our pond’ sign with incredulty.

“I think it’s that feminist thing about the ponds,” she said. I was surprised she knew about it and glanced over at her. Of course, she might have just looked at our banners and moustaches and guessed.

“I agree with you!” she grinned, giving me a massive thumbs up.

This was very encouraging. A few people cheered as we passed by. Yes, we got the odd funny look too. We were sporting a lot of beards and moustaches, even for a posh area like Hampstead. We heard no negative comments on the walk over, although later, outside the men’s pond, women were advised to ‘be kind’ and think about the feelings of transwomen. The man concerned seemed to think we were a very unpleasant bunch.

Amy and Hannah held the big purple ‘Let Women Swim’ banner aloft at the front, although it was billowing in the wind so much, it was hard to read.

Somebody started a chant.

“The law says no! Men must go!

“No goolies in our poolies!”

We thought this was absolutely hilarious so we kept it up for quite a while.

I dashed up to the front of our little march to photograph Amy & Sweary and then to the back to get video and pictures of some of the costumes. I might not have swum, but I certainly got my exercise for the day!  As we reached the border of the pond we could see the lifeguards in the distance, so we gave them a chirpy holler and a wave to confirm we were on our way.

Turning the corner, we could see a police car, and two men in yellow jackets standing at the gated entrance of the Men’s Pond, presumably prepared to bar our way if we were to surge forward in a manly manner. We rallied behind Amy and Sweary, who gave a little speech which she delivered very stylishly.

“If you are excluding us, you’re excluding us unlawfully. Moreover, by allowing ‘transwomen’- so that’s men who identify as women- into the female pond you are further discriminating against women because you have a mixed pond, which used to be called the women’s pond, a mixed pond, formerly called the mixed pond, and a men’s pond. This is direct discrimination against women and in contravention, I believe, of the Equality Act 2010.”

The stoic yellow jackets summonded a policeman, PC Paul, who had the look of a good old-fashioned bobby, complete with old-school uniform and a twinkle in his eye. PC Paul began by greeting us as ‘ladies’, which was very triggering for some of the lads present, especially when they realised he was not going to let us in.

“We’ve just been misgendered!” wailed one.

PC Paul asked the gathering how it would like to be addressed. Women offered up various options. Then PC Paul spoke into his radio, loudly and clearly, “We’ve stopped his Lordships, Sirs and men from entering the men’s pond. We need you here.”

Then, while some of us were still laughing, he firmly told us that we were not being refused admission on the grounds of our gender identities, but because we were a protest.

“Your lordships, sirs and other gentlemen. Unfortunately I am under instruction, due to this being a protest…”

“No, no, no. Not a protest! We are just lads!” interrupted a chorus of dismayed voices.

I looked round at our little posse of manly men and found it hard to disagree with PC Paul. Flags, banners, placards and weird costumes- none of this suggested that we were just a group of guys out for a swim.  Other members of the group were not so easily led from their goal.

“No, no, no! It’s a lads day out!

Let Men Swim! We’re lads, we’re just lads!”

There’s a clip from Life of Brian that mirrored this scene. The Python team, like us, found humour in the darkest places and there’s a scene where women in fake beards and moustaches are pretending to be men so thery can attend a stoning. This is how we must have looked and sounded.  The yellow jackets didn’t even crack a smile. We were having a great time.

After PC Paul had broken the news, Nathan, from the Hampstead Heath Constabulary came out to talk with us. Nathan’s look was more supercop than local boby and his suggestion that we were ‘pretending to be men’ was met with much righteous indignation.

“You think we’re pretending to be men? Who are you to decide who is pretending and who isn’t?”

 “We could think you were pretending to be a man!” observed one woman.

“You’re very convincing!” another assured him.

“I could be a woman pretending to be a man, pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man!”

“What about when men go into the women’s pond? Do staff say, ‘you’re pretending to be a woman’ or do they just let them swim?”

Nathan elusively replied that there had not been any problems and that since the Supreme Court judgement came out, “we have lifeguards there that would call us if they had any issues”.

While we tried to explain the significance of the Supreme Court judgement to Nathan, and he assured us that he was sympathetic to our cause but there hadn’t been any issues- something which we knew not to be true- I noticed that some of the women had slipped off quietly.

So, there we are, standing around, not quite so many lads among us as there used to be, chatting with Nathan & being studiously ignored by the two guys in yellow jackets, when suddenly somebody calls out, “They’re in! They’re in the pond!”

“It was quite spontaneous,” Hannah told me later, “It wasn’t really planned, we just did it. So we all went in in different places. I was trying to get in quickly in case anyone tried to stop me.”

Hannah ended up bashing her knee quite badly. Pool staff helped her clean it and bandaged her up. To give Nathan his due, when she later emerged with a bandage and a slight limp, he showed genuine concern for her welfare, stopping his conversation with the lads, and going over to ask if she was okay.

When I heard the cry of “They’re in the pond!” I immediately rushed to the left of the lake to see, but the swimmers were too far away for me to get a halfway decent photo with my iPhone15. There was a press bloke next to me with an absolutely massive zoom lens on his camera, snapping away, but all I could manage from that angle was this (left).

“Go round to the other side!” called out Venice, who later told me she couldn’t make out who was where but knew there would be photographers around. I dashed to the other side of the pond- I’d removed my beard by this point- arrived at a better vantage point and took the rather grainy pictures below.

In the water, the lads splashed and laughed and waved, and at one point embarked on a chorus of ‘if a person has a penis, he’s a man’. We snapped away from the bank, birds dipped and flapped over the pond and laughter drifted across the water.

I arrived back at the entrance to the Men’s Pond just in time to see Sweary emerging triumphantly from the gate after her dip.

In all, five of the women broke free from our little band of merry men and took the plunge. Bedraggled but triumphant, they swan for about 15 or 20 minutes. Draped in towels and coats and whatever else they had to hand, they shivered and dried themselves off, mission accomplished, and we headed off to the pub and then later to the park.

Here are four of those five fabulous lads. Actually, I believe Venice was non-binary ‘gender free’, so three men and a theybie.

A Word from our Swimmers

HANNAH aka Sweary

“When I saw the video of Amy speaking at LWS, calling us to action at the ponds again, I just knew I had to be there too. She is the brilliant, ridiculous genius that came up with Man Friday back in 2018 – I was only ever riding her coattails.

The protest was perfectly pitched. Enough silliness to make it fun, enough law to make our point. Whether the Corporation of London will ever listen to us is another matter, but whilst they obfuscate and hide behind their lies that this is a complex issue we will hold their feet to the fire. They now know without any room for error that their take on the ponds is wrong, and frankly I suspect they’ve always known this. They just got away with throwing women under the bus because it was popular at the time. Well, that time has passed.

Special shout out to the lifeguards for patching up my busted knee.”

AMY

Amy told me, “Hampstead Heath has a men’s pond, a mixed pond and a ladies’ pond. The City of London Corporation has no excuse not to comply with the law and their refusal to do so exposes the rank misogyny of their decision makers.”

You can read Amy’s funny and factual tweet thread about the protest and the law, here.

IZZY

“The whole day was a classic TERF day out, full of sisterhood, humour and underlying determination. The emotional reunion of the original Man Friday team and Venice (who had originally got me into the pond protests) made it extra special. The police, security and swimming men played along with us- what a positive change from the similar protest in 2018. We really were more Life of Brian than Life of Brian. Now we just need the law to be applied to the women’s pond as the men’s pond- fairly! Are you listening, City of London?”

GROUCHO

“At the women’s pond, it’s not just about getting undressed with privacy, it’s about spending time together in the meadow away from the male gaze. This is really important for all women but it becomes more important for lesbians, for orthodox Jewish women, for Muslim women and for any woman who feels uneasy or frightened in front of men.

This is a place where women can be themselves, in stages of undress and where, without men present, conversation flows in a way that is unique to single sex spaces. We can talk about women’s issues, maybe an abusive relationship we are in; sexual harassment at work, menopause, motherhood, juggling a low paid job with child care costs…

Despite women’s spaces being as important today as they were 100 years ago, the Kenwood Ponds are digging their heels and refusing to follow the Supreme Court ruling. This is unacceptable.

We, as women, as feminist activists, refuse to accept this. This protest was for ourselves and for all women and girls, alive now and all those of future generations. I am not a mother, I don’t have a young daughter, I’m not Muslim, I’m not an orthodox Jew, but I’m a woman and I care about all my sisters just as the suffragettes cared about my grandmother and my mother. I fall into the category of women who feel frightened in the presence of men. Let me swim.”

VENICE

“I thought the best thing about today was that it was a reunion of the original Man Friday team from the action back in 2018. Hannah Clarke – also known as Sweary Godmother- just reappeared after she was summoned by the fabulous Amy Desir! They were the OG men’s pond campaigners and I’m so happy to support them today.

As well as peaking loads of newbies, like I hope we did in the mainstream media, I think it really warmed the hearts of many hundreds of TERFs around the world to see those two fabulous women re-emerge. It was a proper happy bank holiday Man-day!

A word from our detractors

And the newspapers the next day…

It seems a sign had been spotted on the noticeboard in the staff hut, warning staff not to discuss the Supreme Court ruling or pond policy with swimmers. Staff should report ‘any issues’ and if questioned say only, “We are continuing as we are until we hear further from our Senior Management Team.”

Sarah Vine KC told the Telegraph that the City of London Corporation’s self-ID stance was not compatible with calling the ponds single sex and “any continued description of two of the ponds as ‘men’s’ and ‘ladies’ will expose the Corporation to discrimination claims…”

Clearly, this isn’t over yet.

He’s a Man: how the FA sanctioned a 17-year-old football player because she called a man a man

I thought I’d said everything I had to say on the subject of men in women’s football in ‘The Stunning, Brave & Beautiful Game’, just a few short months ago in September. But here we are again ALREADY and what a fucking mess it all is, worse than ever, eh? Suddenly I find I have more to say.

“Are you a man?”

While men continue to muscle in on women’s sports, this weekend saw a protest outside Wembley Stadium before the England v Ireland men’s game, instigated by an incident involving a seventeen-year-old girl. At a pre-season friendly football match in July, confronted with a large, bearded person on the opposing team, the girl asked him, “Are you a man?” She is also reported to have said, “He’s a man,” and told him, “Don’t come here again”.

He’s a man

Telegraph Sport, on October 19th reported that the girl said she had “become ‘confused” about the participation of the trans player during the match in question, due to the latter “wearing jewellery and sunglasses” and not being in opposition kit.”

At half time the girl had asked the referee for guidance, saying she had already suffered “a number of overly physical challenges” and was concerned for her safety. It should be noted that the referee ‘heard nothing he deemed to be discriminatory’.

Kick it Out

Nonetheless, the opposition team reported the girl to Kick It Out, a group established in 1997, originally to fight racism in sport. Over the years it has expanded its remit to include other areas.

“Discrimination, in all its forms. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Transphobia. Kick It Out are here to put an end to all forms of discrimination within sport.”

 Which all sounds very worthy until you realise that being against ‘transphobia’ in sport really means ‘letting men play in women’s sports if they want to’. After all, who could possibly be more discriminated against than the man who wishes to LARP as a woman?

Kick It Out, armed with complaints from the man in question and his coach (who should hang his head in shame) accusing the girl of ‘persistent transphobia’, trotted off to report her to the Football Association.

It is worth noting that the girl in question is on a pathway for an autism diagnosis, which means that discrimination could well be an issue in this case, although not in the way being suggested. But that’s a whole other can of worms. It should go without saying that no woman or girl should be compelled to lie about the sex of a man, or to pretend a man is a woman. Ever.

Members of Kick It Out‘s ‘Charitable Company’ include the Football Association, the Professional Footballers Association, the Premier League and the English Football League. This lot got together and dragged the girl before a ‘National Serious Case Panel’ where she sobbed as she received a six match ban for being guilty of discrimination.

When challenged about their decision to report the girl, Kick It Out responded, “Just to clarify, when reports are sent to Kick It Out we forward these to authorities for further investigation. Kick It Out is a charity, so we do not conduct the investigation nor decide the outcome, but we can provide further education.”

 

Hmmmm. Impartial? Not really. Since 2016 Kick It Out have enlisted ex-military dude, Stonewall aficionado and wannabe-influencer, Steve ‘Sophie’ Cook to bang the drum for them. In 2017 Cook headed Kick It Out’s unironically named ‘Raise Your Game’ event, aimed at women footballers.

Want to know more about egalitarians-turned-bullies Kick It Out and their dubious credentials? StillTish has researched an excellent piece here.

Lord Triesman

On 24th October,the Telegraph reported that Lord Triesman, former FA chairman, had written a strongly worded letter to both the FA’s chair and its chief executive, concerning the girl’s case.

“I am deeply concerned that the FA is not providing all women and girls with fair, safe football because of its policy allowing male players – those with XY chromosomes, but a transgender identity – to play in the women’s game…”

“A very significant number of serious injuries”

 Lord Triesman raised the issue in the House of Lords on 13th November, saying that the issue of ‘people who were born men’ playing in women’s games had been discussed ‘back in my day’ and “it was clear that it tended to produce an unfair competition and a very significant number of serious injuries. It led us to banning those kinds of competitions because of those reasons – no other reasons.”

He spoke in defence of the girl, concluding,  “I do not intend to let it rest.”

Safeguarding fail

On 6th November the Telegraph picked up the story again, quoting the mother of the girl.

“We’ve always taught our daughter to ask questions, and if she doesn’t feel comfortable or she doesn’t feel safe then she should go to somebody in charge and ask the question… but she’s been  effectively sanctioned by the FA for doing so.”

“A very small population of transgender women”

On November 7th, the Free Speech union published an article about the case. In it, the FA was quoted as saying their inclusion policy enabled ‘a very small population of transgender women to enjoy playing football safely in the grass-roots game’.

The FA shows no concern for the safety of the female players expected to play with men without complaint.

Nor does it seem to grasp the fact that for every man who now enjoys the luxury of playing women’s ‘grass roots’ football, there is a woman who didn’t get a place on the team.

It is worth pointing out at this point that the girl’s mother believes that there were not just one but two men playing on the opposing team.

“The participation of transgender athletes in their acquired gender could threaten the fundamental requirement of a level playing field in sport”   Football Association 2003

The FA has not always so gallantly supported LARPing men in their desire to muscle in on the girls’ games. In 2003 debates, surrounding the advent of the Gender Recognition Act (2004), the Football Association asked for an exemption – as did every other sporting body at the time.

‘Vulvamort’ has an excellent Twitter thread on this subject, here.

In 2003, Lord Moynihan told the House of Lords, “not one governing body that I have contacted, while being sensitive to the issues, wishes to see anything but an exemption in the legislation.”

Some sporting bodies requested anonymity, but not the FA, who asserted that aspects of men playing on women’s teams would be ‘extremely problematic’.

“The participation of transgender athletes in their acquired gender could threaten the fundamental requirement of a level playing field in sport… mixed football is currently prohibited by the FA rules for players over the age of 10 due to the comparatively greater physical strength of male players disparity in strength levels would in our view lead to increased risk of physical injury… the strength and stamina of the average woman would put her to disadvantage to the average man.”

But it wasn’t long before footballing bodies were singing a very different tune.

“We’ve been terrified of saying anything. We don’t want to be accused of being transphobic.”

Exactly a year ago today as I write (20/11/24) it was reported in the Telegraph that four teams in a women’s football league were refusing to play after a transgender player injured one of his opponents. Francesca Needham eventually agreed to withdraw but was said to be persuing a discrimination case.

“We’ve been terrified of saying anything. We don’t want to be accused of being transphobic. We don’t want the names of our clubs dragged through the mud. It has been like walking on eggshells. I’ve heard of women thinking of deregistering as players because of this. There are psychological scars. It’s not fair.” a coach told the Telegraph.

In September 2024 the Daily Mail reported that Needham was playing in women’s football again. It also shared a photo of his ‘prostitution profile’ where he describes himself as ‘a pre-op transgirl’ with a proclivity for lactation fantasies. Needham claimed he had stopped ‘sex work’ before starting to play football with girls and had left the profile up by mistake.

But I digress. I won’t waste any more space on case studies, although believe me there are some gems out there. I discuss a couple of others in The Stunning Brave & Beautiful Game (September ’24) which you can read here.

Suffice to say that there are seventy two men currently playing on women’s football teams in England. It gives a whole new meaning to ‘we love women’s sports’.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Twelve0Five, the group of women responsible for the #SelfIDHarms protest outside the German Embassy in London earlier this month were organising again. Faced with both the FA’s decision to ban a girl from playing football because she dared to ask a man if he was a man, and its continued inclusion of men on women’s teams,  the group arranged a protest for the big men’s England v Ireland match at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 17th November. And what a protest it was!

You can search tweets about the protest with the hashtags #AreYouAMan, #HesAMan #SeeYouSunday and #SaveWomensSports. The Twelve0Five Twitter account is here and the Twelve0Five website here.

One of the first things to consider was where the protest could best be staged once people arrived at Wembley, as obviously the area can get very busy. Some women went up to check it out and plan where we could safely protest to maximum effect.

Other women worked on designing leaflets, stickers and cards that could be handed out to passers by. Some liaised with the press, giving quotes or interviews, others worked to get the message out on social media. Logos and websites were designed and established. Other women made banners and placards. We thought about chants: something short and pithy that rhymed and scanned well. Some of the best ones were as unsuitable as they were hilarious, but we had fun coming up with them.

A petition was started on change.org- which you can sign and share here.

It starts: “The Football Association must implement the right it has in the Equality Act 2010 to bar men from playing in women’s football teams. It is ignoring the conclusion of the 2021 Sports Councils’ Equality Group report that ‘it is not possible to maintain fairness and safety in sport for females if trans-identifying males are also allowed into female categories.’

Once the foundations for the protest were laid, a call was put out for people to join us at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 17th November, at 1.30pm, with the tagline ‘let men play with their own balls’.

The leaflets, stickers and cards were printed and we were ready.

The leaflet asked some thought-provoking questions and suggested that concerned members of the public could write to Debbie Hewitt at the FA, or the FA patron, the Prince of Wales. It featured a QR code, linking to the Fair Play for Women website.

“Women are coming. We want our sports back”

The cards were business-card-sized and called on the FA to ‘reinstate fairness in football by stopping men playing in women’s and girls’ teams’.

 

On our way to Wembley (or ‘nothing like a mad woman’)

I last visited Wembley in August, to see Taylor Swift. (Yes, I am an adult woman who likes Taylor Swift.) Wembley has a 90,000 capacity, and both TayTay and the England v Ireland match had sold out. That is A LOT of people. Most of the people coming from Wembley Park, the closest tube station, would walk past us. Our exposure would be huge.

The forecast was chilly but bright, and we were lucky enough not to be rained off. I arrived about 1.15, and as I descended the steps to the walkways that lead to the stadium, I saw a woman waving a large red banner. Nearby, others had already begun handing out leaflets to passersby.

The approach to the stadium from the tube station is along a wide pedestrian pavement with large buildings, and a few shops and bars on either side. Streams of people were moving along, stopping to look at the odd stand selling food or football scaves and hats. The cold afternoon meant they were selling well. The match was still several hours away. The walkway was busy but not crowded. An irritating recorded announcement, in an ‘alrightmate’ chirpy chappie voice played on a loop, every few minutes, reminding us of all the things attendees were not allowed to do or bring to the beautiful game.

The main group of protestors consisted of mostly, but not entirely, women, and had positioned itself fairly close to the stadium, in a large open space on the left. When we arrived, banners had already been unfurled and placards were being held high. Over the next hour, our numbers grew. I did a quick head count at one point, estimating around 120 people in the main body and around another 30 handing out cards and leaflets. The press estimates were higher.

The passing crowd was surprisingly supportive, especially the men. Many gave us a big thumbs up, or called out in agreement. I was initially surprised that our support came more from men than women but it’s primarily women who have been gaslit by the trans movement and it’s women who are cancelled and silenced for speaking out. On reflection it isn’t surprising that many looked away, or even tried to distract their male friends from talking to us at all. I thought that was very sad, as it’s also women who have the most to lose. Remember what the female football players upthread said to the papers?

“We’ve been terrified of saying anything. We don’t want to be accused of being transphobic.”

That.

Our reception

One young woman passing by yelled out ‘trans rights!’ several times, but we were not met with a counter protest. One unfortunate woman in our group was spat at, and another said she had a few wise-guys tell her to ‘fuck off’ but our hundreds of direct interactions with the public were mainly positive. Some fans were confused by what our banners meant, thinking that we didn’t want men watching or commentating on women’s sports. Once we explained our concerns, they usually agreed. Many were astonished and took a leaflet with interest. Some had already heard of the ‘he’s a man’ case and felt the ban was unfair.

One man I spoke to, there with his son (who looked about eleven) said that girls shouldn’t be allowed to play on boys teams either, citing the example that his son and his friends were worried to tackle too hard in case of injuries.

“There should be separate teams for girls and boys, and for women and men,” he concluded. “It’s just common sense, innit?”

“On the pitch or on the courts- we don’t want men in our sports!

Girls and boys are not the same- we don’t want men in our game!

FA, here’s a thought, keep men out of women’s sport!”

We had a megaphone and we weren’t afraid to use it.

“Oh it’s a shame, it’s a shame, it’s a shame on the FA,” some sang, to the tune of When the Saints go Marching In.

“Because women’s sports are for women, so it’s a shame on the FA!”

“I am here to stand up for our daughters who have been gaslit into thinking they can’t stand up for themselves.”

A woman who had spent several hours handing out leaflets told me:

“Most people were really friendly; really good-natured. Most people, once they realised what’s going on, they were like, ‘yeah thumbs up, good girls, well done!’. One guy worked at the BBC. he said ‘I can’t say this at work but I’m totally onside. There was another person who works at the FA who was very similar…  said ‘I can’t say anything out loud’. There’s been a very positive reception.  Lots of dads here with their kids, they absolutely get it because it’s going on in schools. It was really, really positive.  We’re running out of leaflets and stickers, and I’m running out of voice!”

As I walked over to speak to others handing out leaflets, I passed a man who had been given a leaflet further down the road. He was showing it to his friend and saying, “My God this is terrifying, it really is.”

As the protestors behind us broke into another chorus of “It’s a shame, it’s a shame, it’s a shame on the FA,” I was told, “I see women losing out more and more- sports scholarships are a big one. I know a lot of young women who made it through college because they got a sports scholarship- those rights are being taken away… we are taking away the opportunities that young women have to keep going and keep growing, and move forward in the world. We are defeating them before they even get to college level and that is why I’m here.”

“It’s been fantastic,” another woman said, enthusiastically. “So many people have taken leaflets and they’re stopping and saying ‘yeah we totally agree with you’, which is great. When they seemed to agree I offered them a card and ask them to sign the petition.  We’ve also had some good conversations with people who say ‘what’s this about?’  but when you explain about biology and how men who call themselves women are still male, with those same physical differences and advantages, and you talk about things like men in the same changing rooms as female team mates, then they’re really shocked and they find it really unacceptable.”

Several people said they hadn’t intended to come but had changed their mind at the last minute because they felt so angry. Concerns for daughters and grandaughters who played sports was a big factor. Others had come to show solidarity with the girl who had received the ban. Many people were simply outraged by the injustice.

“I was just so angry about what happened to that poor girl just for calling out the truth and saying a man’s a man, and then being banned. it’s outrageous. I just came out of sheer anger.”

“I’m just fucking fed up of people not seeing the obvious truth that sex is sex. Women fought for decades to have their own sports and spaces and that’s now berng undermined by men who think they have the right to intrude.”

“I came today because I think this is going to affect that young girl for such a long time – I jsut wanted to show solidarity with her. It’s completely unfair, risking women and girls getting hurt. Legally we’re allowed to have our own sports so what the fuck are the FA doing, frankly?”

“I just found out my granddaughter has joined her local football team. I’m really hoping she keeps it going and one day plays for the Lionesses- but will she lose out on a place because of a man? We need to keep men out of women’s sports for our daughters and our granddaughters.”

“I’m here today to save women’s sport and confront the cowardice of the FA.”

“I want our girls to know they don’t always have to ‘be kind’.”

“My heart broke for that poor young girl.”

As the afternoon passed, the steady stream of people heading into ther stadium began to slow. Most fans were settling inside ready for the game when we decided to wrap things up.

Taking stock

It’s now 21st November. The protest made many of the papers and the Twelve0Five group has more in the pipeline, including a second demonstration planned for the Lionesses’ friendly at Bramall Lane in December.

Footboom reported, “As the England Women’s team gears up for a friendly against Switzerland, anticipation swells for a second protest regarding the controversial six-match suspension of a teenage girl…. more than 200 individuals, including both men and women, gathered outside Wembley amid rising tensions over the young girl’s ban…”

The family of the girl has been approached by the Free Speech Union (FSU) which has appointed barrister John Jolliffe to fight the girl’s guilty verdict, which she is to appeal.

The girl’s mum told Telegraph Sport that her family were grateful for all the support, adding:

“Everyone has helped her to know that she did the right thing. This action and support today means a lot to her and to other women and girls who are currently being forced to accept men in their sports and spaces. Thank you all so much, the fight goes on.”

Gary Lineker has yet to respond to accusations of cowardice.

And finally…

Of course there is no ‘finally’. The FA is still holding out against banning men from women’s football, which is pretty rich as they banned us from playing on their grounds altogether for fifty years (1921-1971) and had only just started getting over the embarrassment of that.

I’ve never really ‘got’ football. Some of the protestors went home to catch the match on telly. Not me. But just because I don’t want to play, or even watch, football, it doesn’t mean I can’t care passionately about the right of women and girls to play the game they love, without men muscling in on their teams.

I can in all honesty say I still don’t know who won Sunday’s football match.

But I think we won the day.

A reminder that you can sign and share the Twelve0Five petition to keep men out of women’s football here.