I want to offer a brief note of explanation for my part of the chaos of the last few weeks. I do so, of course, fully aware that my credibility as a commentator on contemporary trans politics has been utterly shot. Accordingly, I’m going to concentrate on my scholarly and creative work from now on.
I initially asked Helen Joyce and others to engage me in debate on trans civil rights last year. Helen Joyce never acknowledged my entreaties directly, but a few months later I was contacted by UnHerd, who told me they had an exclusive agreement with Joyce, such that if I declined their offer to host a debate, I’d effectively be walking away. I agreed, somewhat grudgingly, since I knew they were a far right organization—which, of course, was why Joyce had put me in that position in the first place.
Separately, I discussed a second event with Julie Bindel, who did talk with me directly, at least at first. I discussed the event with Tortoise, a conservative news organ, and was generally very moved and struck by the evenhandedness of their approach. Ironically, while I remained fairly confident about my ability to defeat Joyce, whose public appearances always strike me as vague and unpersuasive, I was much more anxious about Bindel, who is persuasive, thoughtful, funny, vigorous, and was an active feminist organizer years before Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the front cover of Vanity Fair. But for some reason, Joyce’s supporters seemed convinced I was terrified of her, and going to drop out—a belief I found variously funny and tactically disadvantageous to their side, because of course I didn’t want to drop out, and I couldn’t see any possible reason why I ever would.
Once UnHerd made their announcement, however, things became obvious. One group of comrades seemed to think, as people often do, that “debate” over trans civil rights is itself bad, and perhaps that it is connected to state crackdowns on trans people. I didn’t and don’t agree with that position: in my view, trans people need to be seizing as much camera time as possible, if we are to resist the extraordinarily rapid and far-reaching takeover of UK and US institutions by the so-called “gender critical” activists. But another group pointed out that UnHerd were a significantly more toxic platform than I had realized, pointing to obviously anti-Semitic content on the website, including articles lavishly praising the SS officer Ernst Jünger and the Nazi philosopher Carl Schmitt. I held a meeting with some members of the UK trans community who had expressed concern, and was persuaded by those who spoke there that it would have been a strategic mistake for me to align my own political interests with those of a far-right news organization that was actively working to mainstream fascist authors and ideas.
So, I publicly withdrew from the Joyce debate—ironically therefore proving her champions right, who still believe that I backed out from fear of Joyce’s apparent debating prowess. And understandably, the GC Twittersphere went bananas: Jesse Singal, of all people, called me a “huckster”; Joyce herself, apparently unconcerned about her commitment to a platform that celebrated Schmitt and Jünger, suggested that someone make her an actual blackshirt to celebrate her association with fascism.
There then came the matter of the second debate, to be hosted by Tortoise and featuring Julie Bindel. My understanding of the UK trans community perspective on that had been some kind of split: one group of activists urged greater participation in public events and advocacy of that kind, and another group argued that such debates would necessarily harm the most vulnerable members of the community, especially to the extent that even the question of Bindel’s or Joyce’s apparent transphobia would be misguided if it did not also explore the connections between GC ideology and white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and other aspects of far-right ideology. Nonetheless, my perspective at the end of that meeting was that the Bindel event would go ahead.
A couple of things happened yesterday (02/23) that changed that. One was that my mother was mobbed on Twitter by the same gender critical activists who have been hounding me for the last few years, with some going so far as to post pictures of my husband and I having consensual, loving, and mildly kinky sex that GC activists stole from a private instagram account some years ago. The hatred, misogyny, and rage that were being directed at my mother were simply too much to bear. I could not, and can not, ask her to bear the vicious attacks that I have become used to. The other was that I was, finally, terrified, in a way I just hadn’t been before. I no longer felt like I could understand exactly how my advocacy could be useful to the UK trans community, which after all remained in some parts now fairly skeptical of me after I had missed the Nazi stuff on the UnHerd website. But more, I realized that my UK tour would likely become a focal point for the same kind of people who would send my mother pictures of me and Danny having sex. I am scared of those people, and I am not prepared—in a literal sense, I am not prepared, cannot afford the preparations that would be necessary—to feel physically safe at a debate. My friends and supporters, who have been encouraging me to move ahead with this, finally encouraged me to call it a day for my own safety, including my emotional safety, which is frayed. I am a sober alcoholic, and I have felt my sobriety pressured the last few week or so. So I need to put that first—and I’ve not lost my sobriety, I’m happy to say.
So, for these reasons, I’ve canceled the Bindel event, with mixed feelings and genuine gratitude to Julie Bindel and to Tortoise for handling the matter so professionally—a marked difference from the attitude demonstrated by Helen Joyce and UnHerd. I’ve considered scaling back my UK events, or abandoning the UK leg of the tour entirely. I’ve decided not to do that, in the end, because I have written a book I’m proud of and I want to connect with those who have read PLEASE MISS. I hope those who are critical of my work and advocacy will be welcome at my events—some of that is up to my hosts, but I want to say here that for my part, I am available to speak with Julie Bindel, Helen Joyce, or anyone else at those events. I hope the book tour does not go by without at least some capacity to engage my opponents directly, even if in an ad hoc way.
The lesson for me is clear. For the last few years, I’ve tried to be a scholar, a public intellectual, and an author of creative prose. One of those has had to go, and it’s the second one. If I were willing to claim I’d been “canceled,” maybe I could salvage my reputation among the chattering classes, but I don’t want to do that, because it isn’t true. So again, I’m not going to be doing any more political engagements other than those to which I’ve already agreed. For others, I’m not so sure. I maintain that making political choices based on predictions about how our enemies will feel about them is misguided—the GCs are an unhinged and cruel group, and they will mock someone for expressing discomfort with Nazi ideology, and send revenge porn to a proud mother. So let’s not do anything just because we think it will make them feel bad. Let’s decide what our priorities are and commit to them instead. I’m not going to be part of those conversations moving forward, at least not in public, but I am always ready to take instructions and act with my comrades and siblings when it’s helpful to do so.
I remain quite sure that changing one’s entire hormonal system is not “cosmetic,” that lesbians do not need the state to define lesbianism for them, that feminism does not need and should not seek an apparently natural account of womanhood, and I am quite sure that women’s rights are not, have never been, and must never be, “sex-based.” I hope someone can tell me why I’m wrong without justifying those harassing my mother.
In solidarity,
Grace
reasons, and has now started insulting the debate forum host at UnHeard now calling it a "fascist platform"(???) after baiting and goading for MONTHS online for a feminist to debate him, former uni master debater winner at Oxford!
