IPSO transgender ruling: Gay campaigner and free speech advocate adds voice to criticism - saying it could stifle debate on upcoming bill
Criticism of the UK's press regulator over its attitude to transgender coverage is continuing, with a prominent gay rights activist now saying the body is being “repressive”.
Jeff Dudgeon, a UUP figure who was instrumental in the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in Northern Ireland, has added his voice to a swelling number of critics of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over recent days.
It all stems from IPSO's ruling last week against the magazine The Spectator over a piece that called Juno Dawson “a man claiming to be a woman”.
Dawson, known as James until several years ago, is an author of transgender-themed books aimed at young children and teenagers.
Dawson got a Gender Recognition Certificate from the government in 2018, officially changing identity from male to female (these certificates can be obtained without someone getting surgery or hormones).
IPSO ruled that the phrase “a man claiming to be a woman” was “discriminatory”, and ordered The Spectator to carry this judgment on its website.
Fears have been voiced that this now means any article that fails to accept somebody's professed gender identity will face censure by IPSO.
Mr Dudgeon told the News Letter: “I am amazed that a sensible body like the IPSO could take such a repressive view …
“Such a remark, albeit blunt, goes to the essence of the gender dispute and effectively means a newspaper cannot report one side of the argument.
“IPSO must review its decision, which already seems out of date.
“As a member of the Free Speech Union's NI Advisory Council, I am especially concerned at the privileging of one side in the gender dispute to the point where legitimate debate is stifled.
“If newspapers are forced at considerable expense to fight plainly trivial cases involving hurty words in front of IPSO, the very existence of a free press is now called into question.
“Given the ongoing discussions on Eoin Tennyson's Conversion Therapy Bill, this presents an imminent danger …
“Inevitably the nature of what constitutes a woman will be debated but that will now be suppressed in newspapers.”
This is a reference to Alliance deputy leader Mr Tennyson's current attempt to criminalise “conversion therapy”.
His planned bill would outlaw attempts to “suppress” someone's “gender identity”.
In other words, if a schoolboy decided he wanted to become a girl it could make dissuading him from this a criminal act.
This would apply to “counselling or talking therapy” and “coaching or instructing” if the person receiving such services said it caused them “psychological harm”.
In reaching its decision to censure The Spectator, IPSO had stated that “referring to the complainant as a man ‘claiming’ to be a woman was personally belittling and demeaning toward the complainant”, and was “pejorative and prejudicial”.