Last Monday, the police called 74-year-old Margaret Nelson. The officers had gotten a tip about her online statements opposing transgender identity, and asked her to stop posting tweets and blog posts that might offend transgender people. Speaking with PJ Media on Saturday, Ms. Nelson said this was part of a campaign to silence dissent on these hot-button issues, and that activists have overplayed their hands.
“A few others have been contacted by the police, as there appears to be a campaign to exploit the definition of hate in British law, which is too wide and woolly, by reporting people for causing ‘distress’, and the police really don’t know how to handle it,” Ms. Nelson told PJ Media.
A few others have been contacted by the police as there appears to be a campaign to exploit the definition of hate in British law, which is too wide and woolly, by reporting people for causing "distress", and the police really don't know how to handle it.
— Margaret Nelson ☁️ (@Flashmaggie) February 9, 2019
Ms. Nelson described the phone call she received from police in an interview with Britain’s The Spectator. “The officer said she wanted to talk to me about some of the things I’d written on Twitter and my blog,” she said. “She said that some of the things that I’d written could have upset or offended transgender people. So could I please stop writing things like that and perhaps I could remove those posts and tweets?”
The British lady did not just meekly acquiesce to the pressure. “I asked the officer if she agreed that free speech was important,” Ms. Nelson recalled. “She said it was. I said that in that case, she’d understand that I wouldn’t be removing the posts or stopping saying the things I think. She accepted that and that was the end of the conversation.”
In a tweet after the fact, Suffolk Police explained why they made the call. “Hi Margaret, we had a number of people contact us on social media about the comments made online,” the police station’s web team tweeted. “A follow-up call was made for no other reason than to raise awareness of the complaints. Kind regards, Web Team.”
Hi Margaret, we had a number of people contact us on social media about the comments made online. A follow-up call was made for no other reason than to raise awareness of the complaints. Kind regards, Web Team.
— Suffolk Police (@SuffolkPolice) February 4, 2019
Ms. Nelson, formerly a humanist celebrant and local newspaper reporter, has made her opposition to transgender identity abundantly clear. Her blog “Dead Interesting” includes many posts about the difference between biological sex and gender identity, and emphasizes the fact that gender identity cannot change a person’s biology.
“If a transgender person’s body was dissected, either for medical education or a post-mortem examination, his or her sex would also be obvious to a student or pathologist,” Ms. Nelson writes. “Not the sex that he or she chose to present as, but his or her natal sex; the sex that he or she was born with. Even when a body has been buried for a very long time, so that there is no soft tissue left, only bone, it is still possible to identify the sex.”
“So no, in life or in death, trans women are not women, no matter how many times you say it’s so. It’s simply impossible to change your sex,” she insists. This argument is not based on hate, but science.
In comments to PJ Media, she insisted that transgender activists have gone too far, and that backlash to their movement is growing.
“Transgender activists have overplayed their hands, mostly in a not very articulate way, by making excessive demands. It’s being more widely recognised that they regard themselves as especially deserving of special treatment and that they sound like fretful, potty-mouthed kids,” Ms. Nelson said.
“I get the feeling that people who were generally sympathetic are beginning to realise that trans people don’t all have dysphoria, which is a debatable diagnosis, that they’re not a homogeneous mass, and that some are sex fetishists,” she insisted. “The more absurd the claims of activists, such as repeating that trans women are women, or that their brains are in the wrong bodies, the more people will think That doesn’t sound right, and no one can change sex.”
The more absurd the claims of activists, such as repeating that trans women are women, or that their brains are in the wrong bodies, the more people will think That doesn't sound right, and no one can change sex.
— Margaret Nelson ☁️ (@Flashmaggie) February 9, 2019
Activists have realized that dissent is growing, so they launched a campaign against those who disagree. Ms. Nelson suggested that the police are unwitting accomplices in this campaign, largely because they “really don’t know how to handle it.”
Yet the campaign to silence dissent does not stop with calls to police, he insisted.
The 74-year-old woman described “attempts to prevent meetings that have been organised to discuss the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act [the pro-transgender law] by putting pressure on the venues’ owners and local authorities, or by simply turning up to be disruptive.”
Ms. Nelson lamented that “all the political parties are pro-trans, without examining the consequences of a new GRA.” Worse, “dissenters have been driven out of Labour, the Greens and Lib Dems, including me. Teachers, academics and others have been threatened with losing their jobs for being ‘terfs,'” an acronym for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.”
“Whatever they can do to discourage scrutiny and criticism, they’ll do it,” Ms. Nelson declared.
Whatever they can do to discourage scrutiny and criticism, they'll do it.
— Margaret Nelson ☁️ (@Flashmaggie) February 9, 2019
Yet the transgender movement could dissipate quickly, as more and more people realize the truth of biological sex.
“This thing snowballed quickly, within a decade or two, and could fizzle out as fast, leaving virtue signallers with egg on their faces, physically damaged people, and lots of lawsuits,” Ms. Nelson suggested.
The British lady compared the current movement to the “craze about ‘repressed memory syndrome,'” a psychological craze that sparked court cases when “repressed memories” led to claims of child sexual abuse. “Remember the craze about ‘repressed memory syndrome’? A lot of people would rather you didn’t,” she quipped.
Ms. Nelson concluded by insisting that “politicians need educating about the baseless foundations for the claims, and the science.” Perhaps transgender activists are intent on silencing dissent for this very reason.
In both Britain and the United States, radical feminists and lesbians have spoken out against the transgender movement, insisting that enshrining gender identity into the law involves “erasing women” and especially “erasing lesbians.” The Left seems utterly opposed to such dissent, so radical feminists had to speak at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
While transgender activists and many on the Left seem intent on silencing dissent, brave women like Margaret Nelson will not be quiet. Indeed, critiques like hers are arguably the most important thing for transgender people to hear. So many former transgender people have regretted irreversible surgeries that have left them scarred for life.
In any case, the best response to political critics is not attempting to get them arrested. Dissent is not the same as hate and should not be punished as a “thought crime.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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