A feminist activist who was branded ‘transphobic’ and received rape threats over her scheduled appearance in a porn industry debate in Manchester has proclaimed she is no ‘Hitler’.
Journalist Julie Bindel, 51, pulled out of next Wednesday’s debate at the University of Manchester after rape threats and abuse from students and the trans community.
Three of the threats were so violent she has reported them to the police. So far two have been confirmed as originating from the Manchester area.
The backlash stems from accusations of transphobia – a negative attitude towards transgendered people – and posing a risk of disrupting the safe university environment.
Ms Bindel, the co-founder of the charity Justice for Women, has readily refuted that she bears such a liability.
“Transphobic? I’m not! I’m a human rights campaigner! I don’t care how people want to define themselves,” she said.
She believes that students and ‘trans fascists’ have overreacted and are unnecessarily demonising her. Branding protestors as ‘narcissists who need to grow up’, Ms Bindel called them ‘silly, stupid, idiotic, we’re too cool for school so we’ll kick up a fuss students’.
“As if they’re stopping Hitler from coming to talk about the eradication of the Jews,” she said.
Ms Bindel strongly contested that anyone should be legitimately frightened if she were to talk at the debate.
She even dismissed the protestors who peacefully voiced their opinion such as those who contacted the university or took to social networks.
When asked if she understood their concern, she said: “No! No I don’t. I was there to speak about the porn industry.
“The worst thing I’ve done is make an unsavory joke about a man in a dress ten years ago. So no, I don’t understand it.
“I’m someone who has been targeted by bigots, beaten up and hospitalised. How dare they say they are frightened?”
Ms Bindel questioned whether her pulling out of the debate would create a damaging precedent at the university where all guests must be vetted before speaking before students.
She condemned those who believed her withdrawal from the event was a success for the trans community and said: “I’ve suffered the worst misogyny.
“My views are feminist rather than transphobic.”
Allegations of transphobia have followed Ms Bindel for over a decade. She accepted that most stem from what she describes as an ‘irresponsible’ and ‘immature’ column she wrote when starting out as a journalist.
She likened the occurrence in Manchester to other bouts of militancy from the trans community, including preventing her and her charity from winning awards. She said: “I was nominated for the Stonewall Awards in 2008 and trans-fascists stopped me from getting it.
“They are a deeply non-feminist group.”
Ms Bindel still maintains that the psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria is reactionary and regressive.
Image courtesy of 18DoughtyStreet.com via YouTube, with thanks.
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