In the U.K. and much of the western world, women and even transgenders themselves, are less able to express opposition to transgender ideology. The transgender lobby has flipped from supposed tolerance to an out-and-out intolerance for anyone in society that opposes them. The cases of think tank employee Maya Forstater and teacher Debbie Hayton prove this in remarkable fashion.
It would be ridiculous to suggest that Debbie Hayton has a hate-on for transgenders because the 51-year-old physics teacher is one herself. She transitioned in 2012 and for the past five years, has sat on the LGBT committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Now 12 colleagues on the committee want her out. Her crime? She attended a Fair Play for Women event and wore a T-shirt that read, “Trans women are men. Get over it!”
Not only do some refuse to get over it, they refuse that anyone could even say so.
The complaint was delivered to Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, a federation of unions that represents 5.5 million workers. The claim says the T-shirt had “gone beyond discourse, and the expression of alternative viewpoints, and is now propagating hate speech against the trans community.”
By this measure, “Trans women are men,” is acceptable but, “Get over it!” is hateful. The greatest affront to those who demand affirmation everywhere is being called to a change of mind and practice.
Nicolla Williams founded Fair Play for Women, an advocacy group where Hayton wore the T-shirt. Williams says, “When even trans people can get called transphobes, I hope people now understand how ludicrous and far-fetched these attacks have always been. The trans movement has been hijacked by gender extremists.”
Kristina Harrison would agree. The 54 year old has lived as a male-to-female transgender for more than 20 years, but acknowledges biological sex can’t be changed. She says other transgenders who share her views “are afraid to speak out because not only is there an extremely toxic debate on Twitter where they are being attacked from both sides. But also, within our community, the idea around gender identity is very intolerant of any dissent.”
Intolerance from the tolerant? You don’t say.
Harrison has been called a “Nazi facilitator” and “scum” for her views. But she cites Winston Churchill who said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
Harrison made these statements at a tribunal on behalf of ousted employee Maya Forstater. The Centre for Global Development (CDG), a U.S. think tank with offices in London, England, refused to renew Forstater’s contract after her tweet that said, “male people are not women.” Harrison went to the courts to defend this “gender critical” philosophical view as deserving of protection under the Equality Act of 2010.
“The process of having surgery or hormone treatment cannot ultimately transform your sex,” Ms. Harrison told the tribunal. “Every cell in my body has male chromosomes. I have a prostate. These things cannot be completely deconstructed. It is not possible to be biologically female.” Her witness statement said that attempts to “legally coerce society” into treating males as females in all circumstances “is inevitably doomed to fail.”
Judge James Tayler disagreed in his judgment delivered on December 18, 2019: “I conclude from … the totality of the evidence, that [Forstater] is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
In response, Forstater said, “This judgment removes women’s rights and the right to freedom of belief and speech. It gives judicial licence for women and men who speak up for objective truth and clear debate to be subject to aggression, bullying, no-platforming and economic punishment.”
Forstater also stated, “the shock and disbelief I feel at reading this judgment . . . will be shared by the vast majority of people who are familiar with my case.”
This included Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. After she affirmed most goals of the LGBT lobby in a tweet, she added, “But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.”
Rowling found out that the “intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” that Judge Tayler referred to is more typically found on the other side of the argument. The derogatory term ‘TERF’ (trans-exclusionary radical feminists), which was tweeted by 21 candidates who ran the recent U.K. elections, was immediately smeared onto Rowling.
Blogger Jane Aldridge (@sea_of_shoes) tweeted, “TERFs really exhibit some of the most hateful, hideous, and deranged behavior I’ve ever seen, truly scum of the earth level. Congrats JK Rowling for joining them. What a horrible evil way to use your influence. I hate her and I hope something bad happens to her now.”
It’s an upside-down world when “male people are not women” is hateful but “I hate her” is not. No wonder, then, that the Scottish Government has proposed a Gender Recognition Act to let anyone aged 16 or over change genders by mere declaration. “No doctors, no surgery, no checks. Just sign a form,” Fair Play for Women explains. The transgender revolution marches on, with free speech and biological reality trampled underfoot.
