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A small group of radical feminists rallied in Leeds city centre today against what they perceive to be the 'erosion of women's rights'.

Leeds ReSisters tied t-shirts emblazoned with the Google definition of the word 'woman' to statues around the city and then held up flags while they campaigned outside Leeds Art Gallery on The Headrow.

Some of the t-shirts were removed by people who found the protest to be disrespectful, with similar campaigns in recent months drawing criticism from LGBT+ groups who the movement is designed to make transgender people 'feel unsafe'.

The group's organiser, Jennifer, said that the Leeds protest was one of a number taking place simultaneously in cities across the country.

She said: "Women are oppressed due to our sex, and recently the feelings of gender-dysphoric men have taken precedence over the safety of women.

"Male-bodied people should not be able to access these safe spaces because they think long hair and lipstick constitutes a woman.

"Performances of femininity don't make a woman and identity politics is threatening the existing, hard fought for rights of women."

Today's protest follows similarly controversial events organised by other feminist groups in Leeds over the past few months.

In October last year, an advertising company quickly withdrew a poster on a digital billboard on York Road after receiving 'a torrent of abuse' from people who found the message from Standing for Women to be disrespectful.

A month later, Leeds City Council cancelled an event at Civic Hall which had been booked by Woman's Place UK, a feminist group accused of transphobia.

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