Daily Archive

  This is what it looks like to take a stand for decency, transparency and democratic values in society.  Douglas Murray offers his services to defend one of his intellectual foes, because her safety and freedom are being placed in jeopardy by violent males (see trans activists).

 

“To Todd’s credit, her thinking about trans matters means she has emerged as one of a growing number of women who are realising that trans rights and women’s rights do not necessarily rub along in the most peaceful manner. In fact, they grind rather horribly against one another in certain places. Like some religions, you might say.

Prominent among the people noticing this are feminists like Todd who have spent their whole lives extolling all the correct views before stumbling upon trans. So now they hire meeting halls and book seminar rooms up and down the country to crawl towards truths that everyone else already knew. Some among their number — and Todd would appear to be among these — incur the wrath of that segment of the trans lobby which seems to think the best way to make everyone believe you are a lady is to go around threatening to punch people in the face if they refuse to call you ‘Miss’.

Todd’s story has come to national attention because it was announced that she had received threats on social media which meant she now required physical protection from trans activists. Of course, claiming that you have received threats on social media is one of the 21st century’s easiest short-circuiting hacks for privileging your own opinions, and personally I would treat the need for anti-trans protection with a pinch of salt. There have been some very ugly and unpleasant trans protests outside women’s meetings in recent years and the police have on occasion permitted a level of intimidation that is wholly unacceptable. Yet despite occasional violence, we probably shouldn’t overstate the risk of trans terror.

Still the development is an undeniably sinister one. ‘We all have to defend the right of people to have freedom of speech and freedom of debate,’ Todd said last week, adding she and her employers did not want to wait and see if she’d get ‘hit in the face’. And so at present two male staff members apparently arrive at lectures before Todd in order to ‘diffuse’ any negative reactions.”