Norway criminalises 'transphobic' comments made in private

[DresdenChina]

Just posting this quickly so sorry if its already been discussed. Norway is now banning comments made in your own home with potential prison time for doing so.

It horrifies me how usually fairly sane Northern Euro cultures have embraced this, cannot wait for all the dobbing in your Mum and Dad cases.

www.reuters.com/article/norway-lgbt-lawmaking/norway-outlaws-hate-speech-against-trans-people-idUSKBN2852DL

Criminalising private remarks = the Stasi.

This has never worked out well.

It's particularly outrageous that this has been introduced but all the other protected categories (or rather Norwegian versions of) do not get this special treatment.

Agree the article could have been clearer, e.g. it's unclear whether the academic mentioned at the end is in favour of or opposed to the change.

A problem is how transphobia is defined. Many of the definitions being used now are so broad and vague that the only way to be sure of not being transphobic is not to discuss trans issues at all:

www.transactual.org.uk/transphobia

This is why I will never get an Alexa or similar device. People call me paranoid, but if this sort of legislation is passed in the U.K., whose to say Amazon wouldn't be in cahoots with the government, and create an algorithm to detect "transphobic comments".

@ImaSababa

This is why I will never get an Alexa or similar device. People call me paranoid, but if this sort of legislation is passed in the U.K., whose to say Amazon wouldn't be in cahoots with the government, and create an algorithm to detect "transphobic comments".

Of course, failing to provide enough evidences of enthusiastic support each day could also be seen as a problem; silence itself being a crime.

@FeedTheSparrows

Please forgive if someone else has replied about this above but there are moves to bring in the same sort of law here, in England and Wales, as well as in Scotland (where moves to do so are ahead (or should that be behind?) of the rest of the UK).

There is a law commission public consultation on hate crime laws going on now. It closes on 24 Dec 2020.

More detail here: consult.justice.gov.uk/law-commission/hate-crime/

We all need to think about responding to this but I understand it is quite complex...

There's a whole thread on it somewhere.... it needs to be seen by many many more people!

What about a Ring-type doorbell? A few of our neighbours have these and they will record you if the sensor or triggered by movement (so if you are standing in the hall or pass the door). Big Brother is indeed watching / listening to you.

@ThatIsNotMyUsername

Are there many trans people in positions of power and influence there? As opposed to women?

Not that I can see but this appears to have been a news story in 2016.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/sci-tech/norwegians-can-now-legally-change-genders-with-the-click-of-a-mouse-1.3090365

"When I was little I liked to dress up in dresses," she says. "And play with dolls, and so I actually think that I was a girl the whole time."
**

When she was 5, concerned relatives and neighbours said Anna's mother was indulging a dangerous fantasy and accused her of projecting a desire for a daughter onto her son. Norway's child protection services were called. Social workers monitored the family until doctors persuaded the child welfare agency that Anna's female identity was genuine.
"I saw that Anna was different from before she was 3," Oline Myge says. "She wanted to wear clips in her hair and got really unhappy when I cut it."