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Mail On Sunday’s Peter Hitchens refers to same-sex marriage as “politically correct fad” and trans people as “destroying truth itself”

Writing on his blog yesterday, Hitchens said: “Most of these politically correct fads are just designed to wind us up and provoke us. For example, I now regret having wasted so much time trying to argue rationally about same-sex marriage. All the sexual revolutionaries wanted was an excuse to call me a bigot.

He continues: “[T]he idea that people are whatever sex they think they are is a terrifying weapon in the hands of modern Thought Police. Whatever you say, you cannot possibly be right about this.”

“In reality, a whole moral and social system is being destroyed, and traditional ideas of male and female are the next target, now that husbands and marriage have been done away with.”

The blog post was written after the Mail Online reported on 27-year-old teacher Joshua Sutcliffe who was suspended after he “‘accidentally’ called a transgender pupil a ‘girl’ in class when the student identifies as a boy.”

Hitchens wrote of the report:

“[T]hat is why The Mail on Sunday’s exclusive story, that a teacher has been disciplined for failing to respect the transgender gospel, is so important.

“[Sutcliffe’s] slip was small, and momentary. One of his pupils, who would once have been called a girl, has decided to be male. He called this person a girl. So he must suffer.”

However, Sutcliffe reportedly admitted to the Mail that, as a Christian, “he avoided using male pronouns such as ‘he’ and ‘him’.”

The Mail also added that the “main concern” of the student’s family “was that Mr Sutcliffe was picking on their child and they would not have complained about misgendering on its own as they are supporters of free speech.”

The story has sparked a number of responses on Twitter from people including writer, campaigner and model Paris Lees, and the Guardian’s Owen Jones:

 

Chairman of Trans Media Watch Jennie Kermode told Out News Global:

“For somebody who claims to be unable to speak freely, Peter Hitchens has a lot to say, and given the current press onslaught against trans people, we’re not surprised to see that he has found a major newspaper to say it in.

“To compare people protesting at his ignorance through social media to revolutionaries bringing out the guillotine is particularly ill-considered given that trans people routinely face violence as a result of the prejudice fuelled by articles like this. His concern is clearly not that he might be unable to speak, but that somebody who disagrees with him might reply.

“Hitchens’ concern that traditional gender roles might be seen differently as a result of people becoming more open minded is the only part of his rant that rings true. His attitude to it should remind women who have experienced the worst constraints of those gender roles why progress matters.”

The post was published just a day before Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) which is today, 20 November.

To learn more about TDoR and how you can offer your support visit sparkle.org.uk

 

 

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Danielle Mustarde

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