Hate speech laws resurface for transgender community
Should Kiwis face jail time for ‘misgendering’ someone who is ‘non-binary’?
Should the law stop them from ‘outing’ someone who is ‘intersex’?
Should they be criminalised for ‘deadnaming’ someone who is transgender (using their old name — like calling them ‘Jack’ instead of ‘Jackie’)?
Can you imagine if it was illegal to believe a woman is an ‘Adult Human Female’?
Today, I’m writing to you about the most serious threat to free speech we’ve faced this year.
There are three things you need to know from the outset:
1. The Law Commission have been explicitly told not to look at laws around ‘hate speech’; but that’s exactly what they’re doing.
2. The Law Commission has already said that it doesn’t matter to them how many people engage in the consultation. They’re interested in the arguments that are made (you know, as long as people ‘correctly’ answer the questions with the ‘right’ answers);
3. Our would-be-censors are already preparing to use this consultation to create censorial ‘hate speech laws’ in an attempt to protect the transgender community from opinions they disagree with.
Well actually, there’s a fourth thing you need to know, too. 4. We’re going to push back — Kiwis have free speech, even if they disagree with gender theory.
This discussion document will inform a report the Law Commission will write for the Minister of Justice. Ultimately, this work could make it illegal to misuse someone’s pronouns or limit schools' boards of trustees even more in how they present diverse perspectives on gender.
We have until 5 September to coordinate a strong response. Kiwis don’t need human rights law to tell them which pronouns to use. We can’t do this without you.
Even though this is a discussion paper, we know that there are many activists who will try to weaponise this process and use it to pressure the Government to increase censorship.
Don’t believe me? How about this tweet the other day from the one-man-band at Countering Hate Speech Aotearoa.
“I won’t stop until being a TERF is effectively illegal.”
This isn’t an empty threat. It’s a promise. We ignore it at our own peril.
Many Kiwis don’t know what a ‘TERF’ is. It stands for ‘Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist’. It’s a derogatory term that means you believe that a person's sex is defined biologically. A less offensive way to describe the belief is ‘gender-critical’.
Regardless of how we talk about these perspectives, the Free Speech Union will never backdown on the claim that Kiwis shouldn’t be criminalised thinking a woman is an ‘Adult Human Female.’
Remember, claiming a woman is an ‘Adult Human Female’ is already considered ‘hate speech’ to some. For example, we’ve already seen media companies refuse to advertise billboards making this claim.
What would happen if the Human Rights Act now actually made it illegal? (You know, instead of defending the founding human right, which is the freedom to think and speak freely).
The Free Speech Union is the organisation that led the fight to defeat ‘hate speech’ laws. We were told we were up against a majority Government, and wouldn’t make any difference. But we proved the nay-sayers wrong. We led the fight against the regulation and censorship of online speech, and saw the proposals defeated.
These are just two of our victories, but these public policy consultations required a dedicated team to help ensure the voice of thousands of Kiwis could be heard as they spoke out for free speech.
We need to do this again. By joining the Free Speech Union as a paying member, you are contributing to our fighting fund, and joining the largest community in the country working to ensure tolerance and true diversity.
If you don’t want to join, but are invested in ensuring Kiwis can speak openly about sex and gender, you can donate to our campaign here. If we don’t have the resources to push back, we can’t ensure that all Kiwis’ speech is protected.
Is it just me, or can you imagine the National Party giving with one hand and taking with the other? Sure, when Labour proposed ‘hate speech’ laws, they opposed them, but no one would want to risk a group of people being offended by the opinions you hold, right???
Do you really trust the Government to stand up for our speech rights? We need to make sure there’s enough political pressure to make sure they do the right thing and keep Kiwis’ speech free- not weaponise the Human Rights Act to silence those who disagree with gender theory.
We can sit by and hope the powers-that-be don’t give in to the bullies who will throw everything they have at this opportunity to control your speech. Or we can get up, once again, and ensure we retain our freedom.
To do this properly, we need your help: what’s stopping you from joining our work, and donating to this fight, today?
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PS. Had you heard that the Law Commission is considering a discussion document on the Human Rights Act that could criminalise ‘anti-trans’ speech? Why hadn’t you?
Many would say these fights are ‘a waste-of-space culture war’.
Well, I believe a culture that believes in free speech is worth warring over.
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