Peter Tatchell, again. He just will not stop doing this. It’s almost as if misogyny is powerfully addictive, harder to kick than opioids.

Tracy Single is 15th trans woman of colour murdered in US this year. The tiny minority of feminists who demonise trans women as a threat to non-trans women contribute to the toxic, hateful atmosphere that fuels prejudice, discrimination & violence against trans people.

It is shocking to hear all trans women vilified as would-be rapists, domestic abusers, misogynists etc. This echoes the blanket slurs against LGBT+ people by homophobes & against Muslims/Jews by the far right. I support both women’s rights & trans rights. So do most feminists. Bravo!

A black man is murdered, and somehow … Read the rest

The Open Letter by itself wasn’t enough, Alana Lentin also had to put out a “press release” about it, as if it were important. It’s more of the same shite but put into the third person to make it sound newsy and official and impersonal, the way Bill Donohue does with his absurd press releases.

(London, February 22) – Peter Tatchell’s actions in bullying and inciting a media furor against a student who criticized him in a private e-mail reflect a disturbing intolerance toward dissenting views, said 116 human rights activists and scholars in an open letter published today. The media coverage of the concocted controversy also feeds a national moral panic over inflated claims of “no-platforming” –

Yet another Open Letter to Peter Tatchell – perhaps the most confused to date.

I am hosting this open letter on Peter Tatchell, Censorship, and Criticism written by concerned activists, writers and scholars. The letter has been signed by over 100 people. To add your signature, please email freespeechletter@gmail.com. Here is a link to a press release put out today, February 22 to accompany it

As human rights activists, writers, and scholars, we strongly condemn the actions of Peter Tatchell in bullying, vilifying, and inciting a media furor against a student who criticized him in a private e-mail. These attacks exemplify a pattern; Tatchell has repeatedly shown intolerance of criticism and disrespect for others’ free expression. They also exemplify

I was indignant on Peter Tatchell’s behalf (and on behalf of reasonable discourse, truth in accusation, and the like) on Sunday when I read that the NUS LGBT officer had called him racist and transphobic in emails to a bunch of people. But now…I’m disappointed in him, because he has failed to defend other people from dishonest accusations.

First, he was on Newsnight last night with Paris Lees. It’s not available in the US (so far at least) so I haven’t seen it, but I have a transcript of part of what Lees said:

PL: I think that, first of all I want to say that Peter Tatchell is not a transphobe, in my opinion, I think it’s, it’s,

Once again my credulity takes a beating, and nearly crumples under the blows. The LGBT officer of the National Union of Students has been emailing people to tell them she won’t share a platform with…wait for it…Peter Tatchell.

Peter Tatchell.

The Observer yesterday:

The emails from the officer of the National Union of Students were unequivocal. Fran Cowling, the union’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representative, said that she would not share a stage with a man whom she regarded as having been racist and “transphobic”.

That the man in question is Peter Tatchell – one of the country’s best-known gay rights campaigners, who next year celebrates his 50th year as an activist – is perhaps a