Left-wing transgender activists may say they fight for equality, but the dust-up between radical liberals and famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling this week exposes the truth. It’s now beyond clear that many liberal transgender activists are extremists who don’t want just equality but instead demand total subservience to their narrative, seeking destruction for anyone who refuses to bend the knee.
This controversy all started with an academic, Maya Forstater, who expressed concerns for women’s well-being if the transgender movement was successful in redefining exactly what it means to be a man or a woman. Her comments included the statements that “men cannot change into women” and, “Everyone’s equality and safety should be protected, but women and girls lose out on privacy, safety, and fairness if males are allowed into changing rooms, dormitories, prisons, and sports teams.”
Hardly radical stuff.
This is the woman @jk_rowling was defending today.
She got fired, and then raked over the coals by an employment “tribunal” for these tweets.
Disagree with her and debate, of course, but to claim this respectful expression of her opinion is a fireable offense is dystopian. pic.twitter.com/vZe0nSzaQC
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) December 19, 2019
In retaliation for these balanced statements made with concern for women and transgender people alike, Forstater’s life was thrown into complete upheaval. The Independent reports:
Ms Forstater was a visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), which is a think-tank based in London and Washington that campaigns against poverty.
She was accused of using ‘offensive and exclusionary’ language on Twitter for saying “men cannot change into women”. Her legal dispute against her former employer was seen as a test on whether a ‘gender-critical’ view – that there are only two biological sexes – was a protected philosophical belief under the 2010 Equality Act.
Judge James Tayler decided that Ms Forstater’s view was ‘incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others.’
In these comments, Forstater wasn’t speaking about an individual colleague or case. Instead, she was simply expressing her personal opinion about the ramifications of a complete redefinition of how we determine who is a man or a woman.
J.K. Rowling stepped into the middle of the controversy by expressing her support for Forstater on Twitter, and the reaction of the woke Left was swift and relentless. Soon, #TransRightsAreHumanRights and #TERF, an acronym that stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” were trending on Twitter due to a social media mob descending on the author.
Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
This outrage perfectly illustrates the real objective of transgender activists. Their movement isn’t actually about an individual’s freedom to identify as whatever gender they identify as. Instead, it’s based on the demand that everyone else accept all of woke society’s new pronouncements and societal redefinitions, no matter how outlandish. They seek to make the statement of the basic biology that men can’t become women something that can cost someone their career.
Rowling stepped into the Left’s crosshairs for supporting a woman who made statements of biological fact and made worldwide news in the process. It doesn’t matter that, until today, Forstater was relatively unknown and Rowling was a beloved international celebrity. Both will meet the same fate. The message here is clear: No amount of money or fame can save you from the woke mob. And if one of the world’s richest women can’t speak basic, politically incorrect truths without such intense consequences, just imagine what the left-wing activists would do to you.
Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a stay-at-home and homeschooling mother of four and a freelance writer. She is an editor at Ricochet.com, a columnist at the Forward, and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
