Rights, not speech

Letter by Clare Bonetree, Manchester

ImageVery sadly, I am writing to tell you I intend to cancel my subscription, after deep consideration, because of my disappointment at the newspaper’s coverage of transphobia as a ‘free speech issue’.

The final straw, for me, was the article ‘Anarchists barred from bookfair’ (PN 2618–2619), which reported that two people had been ejected from Liverpool’s anarchist bookfair, one ‘for circulating an offensive anti-trans leaflet’ – so far, so clear.

Yet despite this clarity, the last sentence of the article declares this ‘anti-trans leaflet incident’ to be a seemingly ‘free speech issue’. These two things contradict each other!

This is transphobia and it – obviously – causes great distress and fear for trans people.

It reminds me very clearly of just a few decades ago – the 1980s – when I was coming out as a young bisexual woman.

Back then, it was common for heterosexual commentators, speakers, writers to question what made a person homosexual, and whether their homosexuality was real. What is a ‘real lesbian’ vs a ‘pretend lesbian’ (guess which category they put women like me into).

Now cis (non-trans) people are doing it to trans people. I am sure that Peace News would not defend racist speech, questioning the existence or right to exist of Black or Muslim people, as a free speech issue. So it should be with trans people.

Allyship begins with, and is grounded in, recognising someone’s existence and dignity. Understanding another person comes from empathy – simply opening to another’s humanity, regardless of whether you understand them. For me, this is the foundation of nonviolence, and the starting place of revolution.

Yes we desperately need to talk about how to ensure that recognition of trans people’s rights is not used by the patriarchy (in the form of the state) to override the hard-won rights of women raised as girls.

Better still we need to go further and together work out how we can work for the recognition and protection of all people’s rights, and how to ensure that our rights support each others’ protection. None is free until all are free, and safe. But this is not a free speech issue. Please stop perpetuating this narrative.