Remember Jess de Wahls? Her work was pulled from the Royal Academy shop this summer after claims from trans activists that she was transphobic. She'd offered her opinion over Twitter that it was impossible to change sex. They – the RA – later apologised. It turned out that de Wahls wasn't someone who was prepared to roll over meekly and offer her apologies.
An artist who was “cancelled” by the Royal Academy of Arts after campaigners accused her of transphobia has said that ostracising people over their opinions is “Cold War nonsense” that prevents free discussion….
De Wahls, who has described her father as “gender non-conforming”, told how she was hounded online by people offended by her opinion. She told Sky News: “I had a theoretical concept of what the backlash would be like but it was actually really, really horrific when it did happen . . . I had people from the States and Canada trying to call me in the middle of the night. I haven’t had my phone out of sleep mode since then.”
Describing attacks on people who question the views of transgender rights activists, she added:“The othering of anyone who dares to question, not even take in a statement — those tactics, they’re almost like, I’m from East Berlin and they’re almost like Cold War nonsense. It feels very strategic.”
De Wahls’s comments come after Kathleen Stock, a philosopher professor, resigned from the University of Sussex after being accused by students of having transphobic views. Stock, who denied being transphobic, had said that institutions should not prioritise gender identity over sex and argued against reform of the Gender Recognition Act to allow self-identification.
De Wahls said she believes there should be single-sex prisons and single-sex rape shelters, as well as prisons and rape shelters that cater for trans people.
“We shouldn’t pretend that humans can change sex,” she added.
The artist also said it was “too simplistic” to call the heated debate around trans issues a generational thing, pointing out that older people who “should know much better” were involved too.
Universities have been at the centre of the debate over trans issues, with academics saying they have been silenced for questioning whether transgender activists were stifling free speech.
De Wahl said that today’s students had an expectation of lecturers to “perform a duty”.
“They are not going to universities any more to learn but actually to just get their ideas regurgitated,” she said.
De Wahls claimed that the charity Stonewall, which has campaigned for trans people to be able to change their birth certificates without a medical diagnosis, had played a significant role in the current debate: “I think Stonewall has been really instrumental in lobbying for this and to get people to shut up and to ‘other’ anybody who does question things. It’s just a really toxic environment.”
A Stonewall spokesperson said: “It is not true that Stonewall looks to shut down debate. Meaningful, constructive debate and discussion around complex policy ideas are at the heart of what we do as a charity. The one thing we do not debate is whether trans people exist. They do, and what we need to discuss is how to make a world where all LGBTQ+ are free to be themselves.”
Ha. That is so disingenuous from Stonewall. In fact, as far as the gender debate goes, it's disingenuity all the way down from the trans activists. Firstly, "no debate" has, until the past couple of weeks, been Stonewall's unchanging mantra. Though since CEO Nancy Kelley has started debating, and been roundly exposed as a charlatan, it does of course remain entirely possible that we'll see a return to the "no debate" strategy.
But really – "The one thing we do not debate is whether trans people exist". As though anyone anywhere has ever claimed that trans people don't exist. Gender critical commentators have relentlessly and pointedly stressed that they have no problem with trans people per se. Good luck to them if they want to live as the opposite sex. The point is that Stonewall and co. insist that by "trans people exist", what they mean is "trans people are the sex they say they are". And of course if they claim to be women, indistinguishable from "cis" women, the objections will come – because trans women aren't women. Trans women are trans women. People can't change sex. As long as the activists refuse to accept this blindingly obvious piece of science (and now even Richard Dawkins has had enough and is speaking out), and claim that any argument is just erasing their existence, then the debate must continue.
Mick Hartley 
Leave a comment