Australia - Kirralie Smith loses her appeal

Good for her to keep going. A basic human right in a democratic society must be the freedom to speak the truth. Without this what is the point or value of anything else.

"In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell

Unless many of us pin it - or perhaps our own version of it - our social media, to take the power out of it.

Like many posters are saying here and on SM, following Gisèle Pelicot, the shame must switch sides.

‘I, a woman, am required by the Government of Australia to apologise at all times for my existence on this planet as a woman. Fuck you, Australia. Vive Kirralie! This shame must switch sides.’

It’s ridiculous. Loads of people knew who Riley Dennis was long before Kiralee said anything about him, because of his homophobic “lesbians with a genital preference are transphobic” videos that Magdalen Burns eviscerated years ago. If he didn’t want attention, he shouldn’t have posted homophobic stuff on YouTube.

Excellent idea. The Streisand Effect meets I am Spartacus.
As @Helleofabore says, this will probably happen organically but would be great to see some organised action.
Also, I wonder what would happen if visitors to Oz started wearing sex realist T-Shirts? The politicians would not want to risk their tourism industry.

I believe this will be what will happen anyway. Enough women across the world are very concerned by this judgement that to bring attention to its incredible over reach, women will probably be doing this. The judgement is already being shared across the world.

If she is forced to tweet it, is there any way it could be retweeted by her supporters with some kind of message? Where we say what she can’t? Any kind of campaign of defiance might end up drawing more attention to how appalling her case is.

Kirralie has posted a video to TwiX:

https://x.com/KirralieS/status/2081208374776201425?s=20

https://nitter.net/KirralieS/status/2081208374776201425?s=20

'I am ok and I am so grateful for your support. Just a reminder that no law and no amount of money can ever make a man become a woman. I will never comply with a lie.'

That is appalling. I'm sick to my stomach over this. May as well have handed her a tabard of shame to be worn in public.

Not if you're not on X. There's a tweet, but it doesn't include the wording for the apology.

Of course, Kirralie is an alternative spelling for Kirrily.

"And if you don't agree, we will use every method possible including the law to persecute you until you do agree. How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?"

Umm… are you sure you want to label
the name ‘Kirrily’ a ‘stupid name’

https://nameberry.com/b/girl-baby-name-kirrily

Seems like you are not making the moral point you probably supposed you were. I cannot imagine calling Kirrily a stupid name and feeling righteous about it.

https://x.com/woods1278/status/2081413624396951817?s=46

this tweet has the text for the message that Kirrily needs to post.

This is what JK Rowling did to resist the current Scottish equivalent of this law:

JK Rowling in ‘arrest me’ challenge over Scottish hate crime law - BBC News

Yes, yes, we know, nobody is supporting her, or what she's said, just her right to say it. Do keep up.

"Liberty lies in the rights of that person whose views you find most odious" JS Mills

Kiralee, or whatever her stupid name is, is not a good person. This cause may be worthy but she's also a racist homophobe.

[Oh hello, I've just noticed your username - another Marie - and I've sometimes been called Barking too😄]

I still haven't read through the ruling more carefully, but I got the impression that the judges [original+appeal judges] thought that serious 'harm' had been done to Dennis - intimidation, distress, shaming, name-calling by strangers, emotional injury, etc etc.

They didn't think that it was just a case of KS expressing an opinion, they decided it was personal and insulting to Dennis.

For instance, calling him a 'bloke in a dress' was mentioned as being beyond the limits of reasonable debate.

That's a bit Bananarama, isn't it? because I got the impression that simply saying 'Ms Dennis is a man' is 'vilification' in and of itself, so KS could have couched her opinion in the form of a Petrarchan Sonnet and it still would have been 'vilification' and therefore illegal.

So the apology and the post staying up for 3 months seem to be considered appropriate to match the level of embarrassment and distress caused to Dennis - if it's difficult and embarrassing for KS, that's the whole point.

I am not defending any of this I'm just trying to understand the judge's point of view, which seems to be more to do with compensating Dennis for 'vilification' than what KS believes.

The other thing I noticed about the ruling was that a lot of it was looking at specific points in the appeal, which claimed that the original judge had erred in law or misinterpreted it, and there was a long succession of 'no s/he didn't's = appeal dismissed.

As PPs have said, that's what comes of using an ideological instead of a biological definition of 'woman' in legislation.
Saying Dennis is a man is wrong in law, the law says he is a woman, and denying that, especially publicly and with strong words, is 'vilification' under the local laws, so I guess the appeal judge's hands were tied.

Can Ms Smith appeal on the basis that the three month post seems vindictive and indicative of a particular mind set in the judge that is nothing to do with justice?

Exactly.

I wonder whether she'll be forced to go to a women's prison which has transwomen prisoners in it.

This is exactly the kind of non-violent conscience-based case that Amnesty should be supporting. Instead, they've decided to join forces with the ideological witch hunters.

I’m afraid the given the law in Australia, all she can do is willingly go to prison to shame Australian legislators into correcting their folly.

If she refuses to post the apology, I suppose she'll be looking at either a large fine or imprisonment, for contempt of court.

Absolutely. Fucking hell.

This 👆💯

The courts only interpret the law and JG changed the law. In the UK appeals worked because women still had legal rights, you just needed to find a judge senior enough to be sensible. In Australia where the law itself privileges men who call themselves women what can women do? I am so thankful we never got to that point here.