On the wrong side of the Green Party, the right side of the law

Committed environmentalist Emma Bateman explains her battles with her own party over trans and in defence of women's rights.

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I am a natural Green: a committed environmentalist concerned about climate change, and for 15 years I was a Green Party member until I was expelled for saying that men are not women. I wasn’t having that, so I am taking the Party to court, where I am confident I will win.

Prior to 2018, I paid little attention to party policies beyond environmental ones. But then I discovered the party enthusiastically embraced gender ideology. I was shocked. I couldn’t grasp how a party rooted in science and nature could champion the notion that a woman is anyone who identifies as one. I knew voters would not buy it.

Green Party Women is the party’s official group representing women’s interests, but after the party adopted a ‘Trans Women are Women’ policy, the Green Party Women committee, despite the efforts of some stalwart members, was pummelled into silence. So, in 2019 a small group of quietly gender-critical women decided to stand for election to the committee. We succeeded, and began building up the Green Party Women membership. Then we made posts on Facebook objecting to the demonisation of ‘TERFs’ and expressing solidarity with JK Rowling, who was being vilified in the media. This put a target on our backs.

Green Party Women soon became a battleground. High-profile figures including Sian Berry (then Green co-leader) and Carla Denyer (later co-leader) attempted to have the whole committee removed.

The next Green Party Women committee election was fiercely contested, and trans activists gained most of the seats. I was re-elected co-chair alongside a trans woman who insisted he was female.

It did not bode well.

I asked: ‘Party policy states trans women are women, but if sex and gender are different, do I have to agree a trans woman is female?’ The Green Party Regional Council refused to answer.

In March 2021, I brought a motion to the Green Party Spring Conference on ‘Ensuring Sex and Gender are not Conflated’. It proposed that when collecting data to make policies, it should be established whether that data was based on sex or on gender identity. Sian Berry and LGBTIQA+ Greens denounced it as transphobic and harmful. The motion was on the conference agenda, but minutes before it was due to be debated, the session chair announced it would not be heard, and simply expunged it from the agenda.

Two days after conference, I was placed on a ‘No-fault suspension’ following a complaint from two trans activists on the Green Party Women committee, who claimed I was creating a ‘hostile, intimidating, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment’ for trans members.

No-fault suspensions are meant for cases of ‘immediate risk to the party or to individuals’, but what risk I posed was never explained. In July 2021, I sent the Party the ruling from Maya Forstater’s case confirming gender-critical views are a protected belief under the Equality Act. I suggested the party might be breaking the law. My membership was reinstated, but the Green Party Women trans activists went on strike and refused to work with me. Mediation was suggested, but my trans woman co-chair said he’d only consider it if I first agreed he was ‘a woman and not male’. The Green Party Regional Council responded to his demand by reassuring him he was a woman, and ordering me to delete a tweet implying he was male, threatening re-suspension if I didn’t comply.

At the next Green Party Women election, I was again elected co-chair. The first committee meeting was held on 3 February 2022; I was hit with three no-fault suspensions the very next day for various complaints including that I had read out the Party’s ‘Trans Women are Women’ policy in a sarcastic tone at a Let Women Speak event.

One complaint came from Amelia Womack (deputy co-leader), who cited part of my hustings speech given during the committee election campaign where I said:

‘I have been clear that I am proud to stand up for women’s rights, I do not believe that males can ever be females, and single-sex spaces are necessary for the safety and dignity of women.’

Amelia claimed this was ‘belittling, derogatory, insulting, offensive and discriminatory’.

I was suspended for most of 2022 and, after a brief return, the disciplinary panel heard a further complaint from Sian Berry and Hannah Allbrooke (then deputy leader of Brighton & Hove Council), which included claims like: ‘Emma questions whether there is a difference between men and a trans woman, therefore denying trans people’s right to self-identify.’

I was expelled over that complaint in January 2023, but appealed, because during the hearing Sian admitted she’d made the complaint in order to get me suspended to prevent me from attending conference. I argued this made the complaint vexatious. The complaint was ruled ‘unreasonable’. but was allowed to proceed anyway. The appeal was dragged out for two years, but in January 2025 I was expelled again.

This is how the Green Party operates. ‘Trans’ is treated as a sacred caste, and questioning the gender orthodoxy is heresy. And it isn’t just a ‘me’ problem: between 2019 and 2024, six gender-critical co-chairs of Green Party Women, alongside numerous gender-critical members, were suspended or expelled. The party has become a safe space for misogynists of every stripe, traditional and progressive alike, and of both sexes.

Please watch and share the two-minute film below about my case, which features my solicitor Elizabeth McGlone and Baroness Claire Fox, who knows a thing or two about the necessity of democratic debate. This case matters, because when a political party flagrantly disregards its own rules and actively discriminates against members, it is not fit to govern.

Accountability isn’t optional, but whilst the party has members’ money to splash on lawyers, I have only my savings and the generosity of strangers. Please support my crowdfunder if you can, because political parties must be made to accept that they are not above the law.