Maya Forstater
'What is at stake?'
(extract)
The Tribunal held that, because of the risk of causing offence, both the use of language to refer to biological sex, and the beliefs which that expresses, are unacceptable in a democratic society. This means that ordinary words like man and woman, male and female, son and daughter, mother and father, gay, lesbian, heterosexual are all removed from use as a means to talk about the sexes.
As the skeleton argument states, the Tribunal’s approach is reminiscent of the Ministry of Truth’s Newspeak:
words themselves are to have their ‘undesirable meanings purged out of them’ along with the associated ideas, so that ‘a heretical thought… should be literally unthinkable at least so far as thought is dependent upon words’
As Janice Turner writes I am far from alone in having faced detriment, discipline or dismissal at work for expressing beliefs of this kind.
Guardian journalists, principled, progressive writers, who are terrified of uttering what now counts as WrongSpeak. As the tram-tracks of left-wing discourse have narrowed… suggesting a humane balance must be reached between trans activist demands and women’s rights, can result in vicious censure from colleagues, even demands that they are sacked. Questions imply criticism: disagreement is hate-speech.
She writes of feminist authors dumped by agents, who in turn are frightened for their own livelihoods. Female academics enduring professional defamation, petitions to no-platform them, exclusion from publications and talks cancelled. A corporate lawyer reported to her chief executive just for following feminist accounts on Twitter; a teacher reported to her head by a student intern who’d overheard her criticise the charity Mermaids. A charity worker faced a complaint to her board because she’d “liked” a JK Rowling tweet. A copywriter who queried why “woman” must be replaced with “womxn’ getting fewer chances to work.
I know far too many of these stories myself; ordinary people made terrified to speak up for fear of their jobs and careers. The most critical places where the surpression of the ability to speak truthfully and use ordinary words to talk about sex is when people’s jobs involve the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people, and establishing and implementing policies for their protection. (continues)
mforstater.medium.com/what-is-at-stake-18a8da1af6b7