‘I was vilified for speaking out about trans activists’
Barred from Twitter for life, Canadian feminist Meghan Murphy tells Karen Yossman why she will not be silenced
Clad in a black leather jacket and a Rolling Stones T-shirt, Canadian feminist Meghan Murphy looks like any other music-loving patron as she reclines in the small beer garden at the back of The Hawley Arms, Amy Winehouse’s old haunt in Camden. Certainly, few would suspect that the 39-year-old, who, when we meet, is in the middle of a whistle-stop speaking tour across the UK, has been subjected to such a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation that, in her hometown of Vancouver, she has police escorts from public engagements.
What has attracted these repeated threats of death, rape, violence and censorship – as well as a ban from Twitter last year, over which she is now suing the social media behemoth – is her staunch position on the most blistering of political hot potatoes: transgender activism. “When they started pushing through legislation [in Canada] I was like, OK, well this is going to have a real impact because gender identity is in conflict with women’s sex-based rights,” she says matter-of-factly.
One Canadian bill that spurred her to action has the potential to criminalise anyone who refuses to use the preferred pronouns of trans people. “All these policies were being changed all of a sudden, and there was no public consultation, no public discussion, no debate,” she explains. “Nobody asked women’s organisations, or feminists or the general public.”
It was into this vacuum that Murphy stepped forward. As one of the lone
voices unequivocally arguing that identifying as a different gender does not change one’s chromosomal sex (and, ergo, that trans-women are not actually women) Murphy was swiftly labelled a “radical” feminist, as well as a bigot and a transphobe by her detractors, many of whom also accuse her of being Right-wing. To Murphy, a once-proud socialist with a Marxist father, it’s a laughable claim, but she feels betrayed by the Left. “The NDP [Canada’s equivalent to Labour] has fully vilified women who speak out about this,” she says. “They won’t even have a conversation.”
On Monday evening, Murphy spoke at a sold-out event on women’s rights in Bloomsbury, where she received something of a rock star’s welcome, with whoops of appreciation as she walked on to the podium. It makes our meeting at one of Camden’s most rock ’n’ roll pubs the following afternoon feel quite appropriate.
The reason for her visit is because a similar ideological battle is taking place here. Last year, the Government launched a public consultation on “gender self-id”, a policy that would require little more than signing a statement – and no medical oversight – for anyone to obtain a legal gender change. The debate in the UK has been as fraught as that in Canada, with accusations of transphobia liberally hurled at those who dare raise the potential practical impact of such sweeping legislative reforms.
Unsurprisingly, few prominent women have publicly waded into the fray. Those who have – such as the former Olympians Sharron Davies and Dame Kelly Holmes, as well as Joan Mcalpine, the MSP who invited Murphy to address the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood last night – have, like Murphy, been subjected to appalling threats and abuse.
Murphy’s conviction has also played out online, initially earning her a handful of suspensions from Twitter. Finally, last November, the site issued a lifetime ban after she tweeted “yeah, that’s him” in reference to a Canadian trans-woman who still went by a male name and is believed to retain male genitalia and was, at the time, reportedly suing a number of female beauticians after they refused to administer a Brazilian wax, which involves the removal of pubic hair.
As a self-employed feminist writer and campaigner who used Twitter to promote her work – Murphy had accumulated around 25,000 followers – she is now bringing a test case against the company. “I was worried about my livelihood,” she explains, as well as the implications for free speech.
With an increasing number of British women suspended or kicked off Twitter for similar statements – last year Miranda Yardley, the transsexual writer, was also banned for tweeting that trans woman Aimee Challenor, a former Green Party LGBT spokesperson, is a man – lawyers and campaigners in the UK will be paying close attention.
While Twitter has thus far refused to comment publicly on Murphy’s case, it has, in a move some might see as perverse, filed a US legal motion meant to protect the right to free speech, in an attempt to get her case thrown out. She is waiting for a court to rule on whether or not her claim can proceed.
‘We have to hire bodyguards and bring cops so we can have a conversation’
Murphy has genuine sympathy for those suffering from gender dysphoria (the belief they have been born the wrong sex) but it is outweighed by her concern that trans activists’ increasingly rapacious demands, particularly in the name of trans-women, many of whom, it is believed, opt to retain their male anatomy, will have potentially devastating consequences for women and children in a plethora of areas, from professional sports to domestic violence provision.
In Vancouver, she points out, a women’s rape shelter, which denied services to trans-women, was deemed “transphobic” by local politicians, who voted to cut its government subsidies. “Women who are escaping male violence need somewhere to go,” Murphy says. “And these places are going to lose funding unless they cave.”
Despite her public aura of bravado, she admits that the incessant harassment has taken its toll. She has lost friends fearful of damaging their “woke” credentials, received obscene telephone calls, and been reported to the police for alleged transphobia. “They obviously thought it was silly,” she says, but nevertheless a policeman warned her to “be careful”.
“I’m scared for my safety,” Murphy confesses. “Lots of women are. I know people who’ve lost their jobs over this. Women are being silenced.” That may sound like hyperbole, but on Monday’s panel, Murphy spoke alongside Maya Forstater, a tax expert who became the first person in the UK to be fired for publicly stating that trans-women are not women and has now launched tribunal proceedings against the Centre for Global Development, her former employer. CGD said it could not discuss staffing matters, but all staff “are expected to uphold our respectful workplace policy”.
Equally telling is the fact that details of the panel’s location, organised by Woman’s Place UK, weren’t released until just hours before the event. In the past, venues have been subjected to virulent harassment from trans activists. It’s the same story in Vancouver, where in January a talk hosted by Murphy on the topic of transgender children was swarmed by 200 protesters. “We have to hire bodyguards and security and bring the cops so that we can have a conversation,” she says.
If anything, it has only emboldened women concerned about what they see as a creeping penetration of their spaces – from Girl Guides sleepovers to gym changing rooms – to speak up.
“I’ve talked to lots of people everywhere and most people don’t buy into this,” she says. “And I think even a lot of the people who publicly say they do don’t buy into it.”
As Monday’s event drew to a close and the panellists took questions, an audience member asked whether they could each recommend some further reading. Murphy, the last to answer, paused to consider her own experiences before replying: 1984.