Trans activists’ demands to shutdown dissent is a major threat to free speech.
- Transgender individuals should be entirely free to identify with their chosen gender – and equally, contrary opinions on trans identity and policy should be debatable.
- Influential activist groups like Stonewall and Mermaids advocate for gender critical views to be criminalised under ‘hate speech’ laws.
- Expanding hate speech laws threatens debate on controversial issues such as gender self-identification laws, female-only spaces in hospitals, and single-sex sports.
- Labour MP Graham Stringer says the paper “skewers the authoritarianism and the irrationality of the transgender ideology” while Conservative MP Nick Fletcher says it is a “much-needed wake-up call to libertarians and conservatives”.
As Labour recommits to introducing tougher ‘hate crime’ laws, a new paper highlights the need to protect free speech in the face of trans activists’ pro-censorship demands.
Marc Glendening, paper author and Head of Cultural Affairs at the free market Institute of Economic Affairs, cites a series of high profile cases to demonstrate that activists “do not aim to win the debate but rather to prevent debate from occurring”, including:
- Mermaids and Stonewall claiming that opposition to self-identification constitutes ‘hate speech’ and that it should be banned;
- Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s intention to bolster hate crime legislation to make sure “every LGBT+ crime is treated as an aggravated offence,” raising concerns that ‘misgendering’ people could lead to a criminal conviction;
- Police investigations of individuals for expressing gender critical views under existing public order offence laws and the recording of ‘non-crime hate incidents’;
- Harassment and threats towards gender critical voices such as Rosie Duffield and attempts to physically prevent gender critical voices from speaking publicly;
- Preventing medical professionals from providing non-affirming gender identity care under the auspices of banning ‘conversion therapy’.
https://iea.org.uk/media/dont-outlaw-gender-critical-views-says-new-paper/