Feminist journalist banned from Twitter for writing 'men aren't women' speaks out
The feminist journalist Twitter permanently suspended last week for writing such things as "men aren't women," is urging everyone to speak out regarding transgender activism and big tech censorship.
The social media giant, she notes, seems to have a particular problem with women who dissent from the claims of transactivists and they unfairly hijack the dialogue about these issues.
Meghan Murphy, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based founder and editor of the independent website Feminist Current, has never shied away from criticizing and asking questions about transgender ideology, often highlighting the threat it poses to women's rights. Yet in recent months, efforts to silence her have notably increased.
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She wrote at length of her exasperation with the antics of transactivists and their long history of intimidating and abusing women who object to their demands on Quillette Wednesday, arguing that it is important for everyone to be able to talk freely about the direction of public policy related to gender identity.
"It’s about a cultish movement that is flexing its muscle on campuses, in civic organizations, at public events, and in the back offices of social-media companies, to strike down anyone who dares point out that the gender emperor wears no clothes. It is about our ability to debate important issues and speak the truth in the public realm," Murphy explained in her essay.
"It’s time for all of us — not just women and feminists, who are now taking the worst of it — to put their collective foot down and demand a return to sanity."
As The Christian Post reported, Twitter recently changed its terms of service for users. Under its new rules, what is called "dead-naming" — referring to trans-identified persons by their name prior to transition — and "misgendering," are considered "hateful conduct" and will not be tolerated.
Until a few days ago, Murphy was a blue-check verified user of Twitter and had a following of over 20,000. A Change.org online petition has been launched to demand her account be reinstated. By Thursday morning, it had garnered over 5,000 signatures.
CP spoke with Murphy by phone Wednesday afternoon and below is the lightly edited transcript of the interview.
CP: Certainly other people have said similar things as you have on Twitter, offered criticisms of transgenderism etc., I'm thinking of at the moment of conservative men like Ben Shapiro and Ryan Anderson (who wrote a whole book on the subject). Yet they aren't banned. You've made no threats nor have you incited anything against anyone. What's at the root of this? Why do you think you got suspended and they haven't?
Murphy: The reason I am banned and there are men who are saying the exact same thing that I am saying, like Ben Shapiro who is still happily tweeting away, is that I've been targeted specifically because I am the most prominent feminist voice in Canada talking about this issue, almost no one else in Canada is talking about it. And the media will not cover my perspective. They will not cover the feminist analysis of gender and our critiques of gender identity legislation. And I believe this is partly because the media prefers to frame this as a right versus left issue.
They would like it to appear to the public that everyone who is progressive or on the left is in support of transgender ideology and gender identity legislation and that it's only conservative Christians who are opposed to it and leave out the other analysis. And I have a huge platform and a large audience and people were listening to and paying attention to me, and transactivists could see that I was asking these uncomfortable questions and other people were then saying 'Yeah, what about that? What does this mean to be transgender? How does a man become a woman?' They had no way of shutting me down and they can't have me fired because I don't work for anyone. I work for myself. So they're just trying to shut me up in any possible way.
CP: While you have noted that, generally speaking, the political right regards trans ideology as nonsense, there are also left-wing dissenters such as yourself out there too but many seem hesitant to voice their opinions. Why is that?
Murphy: I have far more supporters than detractors. Even online I think transactivists are trying to make it look like the vast majority of people are on board and they are doing this in part by shutting down other voices but also by taking over social media because social media now really is our public square. This is where we are having public debates. And so they're taking over the conversation in those arenas so it appears that nobody disagrees with them except for evil bigots.
I think people on the left are being really cowardly about this, frankly. A lot of people on the left, for sure lots of feminists, are concerned about this and are upset. They're upset about the [medical] transitioning of children, putting children on hormones and puberty blockers en route to really horrible surgeries. And this gender identity legislation that allows men to access female-only spaces like women's transition houses and women's change rooms, and to be transferred to women's prisons and to compete in sports alongside women.
People know this is not OK, for the most part. But the transactivists have been so successful at bullying, threatening, and no-platforming people, as they've done it to me and many other women. They have done it to men also, but it's true that women are being silenced and are under attack. I think it's often because we're more vulnerable and easier targets. And by that I don't mean that women as people are all vulnerable. What I mean is that men who are speaking out are in positions of power, they have more money than we do, they aren't really fire-able. I'm just an independent writer, not wealthy by any means. So it's easier to shut us down.
CP: How important is it that people on the right and left who disagree with the claims of transgenderism speak up? What's at stake?
Murphy: When we're talking about policy changes and legislation we really need to start speaking up and have this debate. I mean, the [transgender] ideology is incoherent, insane, and frankly, sexist. It doesn't make sense that you can be born in the wrong body. It does not make sense that you can be a man but actually be a woman "on the inside." These are not coherent, rational ideas based on science. You cannot change sex; it's simply not possible.
So when we're talking about policy and legislation change that trumps women's rights and women's safety, these things like Twitter's new rules in their terms of service against "misgendering" and "dead-naming," what that means is that male predators are allowed to change their sex, change their name, erase their history. So if a man is violent, a pedophile, if he is a danger to people, to women and girls or kids in general, he's fully allowed to erase that history from the Internet and move on with his life and continue to predate.
All of it is scary and dangerous. It's really dangerous to transfer men to women's prisons. We've already seen this happening, assaults have happened. Women and girls should not have to tolerate men lurking around in their change rooms, gawking at them or worse, assaulting them. Women fought to have their own sports teams amongst themselves so that they could play and participate.
And that is all being taken away in just a few years, even less in some cases, all because men are suddenly allowed to claim to be women.
