Mail columnist says ‘trans zealots’ are ‘destroying truth itself’
A Mail columnist has hit out at “transgender zealots”, saying that the erosion of traditional gender roles is “destroying truth itself”.
Peter Hitchens, writing in a column for the Mail on Sunday has hit out at the trans rights movement in a new column.
Hitchens spent months being one of the most outspoken critics of same-sex marriage in the lead up to it being legalised in England and Wales in 2013.
This is apparently a grudge Hitchens has failed to shrug off, as he writes: “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. They could then ignore everything I said, or tell lies about me, or both.”
Going on, Hitchens claims that the “novelty” of same-sex marriage has “worn off”, and that the numbers of same-sex marriages will decrease in the UK “just as heterosexual ones are doing”.
He writes that the “traditional ideas of male and female are the next target” after “husbands and marriage have been done away with.”
Hitchens blames the “thought police”, warning readers for speaking out against LGBT rights.
He then claims that “there will always be someone more militant than you”, saying that if an opinion is expressed “apart from total submission”, “within minutes you will be besieged by condemnation.”
Going on he says that “It will be cleverly based on the idea that you are somehow being cruel to some troubled person, even though you aren’t doing this at all.”
Hitchens says in his column that the LGBT rights movement, or “sexual revolution” is a journey which has “no end” and that it is eroding the idea of “truth”.
He says that “truth is what the revolution says it is”, and goes on to defend a teacher who was suspended after repeatedly calling a trans boy “girl”, and after being accused of disproportionately disciplining him.
The teacher in question, Joshua Sutcliffe, 27, spoke to the press to describe an investigation into the incident as “political correctness gone mad” and accused the school of having a “liberal Leftish agenda”.
He also admitted during an investigation that his private belief was that he was not wrong to refer to someone assigned female at birth using female pronouns, even if they have transitioned.
Hitchens claims he would have “sympathy” for a trans student in this situation asking “Who would want to hurt somebody on a matter of such delicacy?”
But he goes on to write: “This leads down a very dark staircase. Reality must increasingly be forced to fit the beliefs of the new elite. Teachers must be punished for speaking the truth, so schools are no longer places where truth is respected or dissent allowed – which means they are dead to all intents and purposes.
He also incorrectly claims that the gender recognition process, he describes as a “medical conveyor belt”, for young people leads to “surgical alteration”.
This is despite the fact that minors are not given gender reassignment surgery in the UK, even if they decide to go on hormone blockers to delay puberty as part of their transition.
He agrees with Times columnist Janice Turner, who suggested that trans people would ask their parents why they allowed them to go through with the gender recognition process in a decade’s time.
Hitchens says the issue is “a threat to free thought and, after many months of staying silent about it, I feel I have to say so.”
Hitchens also went on to argue with people on Twitter about the issue, asking “why” when a follower said it is a teacher’s “duty” to refer to a trans student using appropriate pronouns.
Indeed, but you abuse it by misrepresenting me. Your freedom, but one which may have bad consequences
for us all. What you do yourself, you license for others, unless you regret it and desist from it. Read my article. I don’t think you have. https://t.co/jGX56bfdkm— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) November 19, 2017
— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) November 19, 2017
The right-wing commentator and columnist, who is the brother of late thinker Christopher Hitchens, is a long-standing critic of the LGBT rights movement.
In an interview in 2015, after the introduction of same-sex marriage in England and Wales and Scotland, Hitchens admitted he regretted getting involved in the debate over same-sex marriage – and said he should have opposed divorce instead.
