The Miranda Yardley Index on Censorship

On this years ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ (see how they nick Mother’s Day?), here is a collection of some of my best censorship ‘hot takes’ where transgender activists and their allies, all of whom are anti-democratic and against free speech, have gone out of their way to try and gag me.

Block Bot Level 1

Ah, these were the days… I was one of several transsexuals who were designated enough of a threat to the tinpot fascists of James ‘Foolon’ Billingham‘s Block Bot, to be given a ‘level 1 blocking’. The curators of this petty-minded farce were some of the most deranged volcanoes of narcissistic rage, including Sarah Brown, Sarah Knoble and serial rapist Laurelai Bailey. Other people who enjoyed a level 1 block included Barak Obama and Lady GaGa. Nice one, boys!

Mirandagate

The story of how I was invited onto Newsnight evening of 11 August 2014 and how a baying mob of foaming at the mouth transgender activists and their censorious allies made sure it didn’t happen has been told many times. Paris Lees and Fred McConnell both pulled out of a discussion about the day before’s newspaper story concerning Kellie Maloney, and what on earth it means for a sixty year old man to turn round and say he’s a woman.

I had been invited on after a number of feminists had been approached and were reluctant to show as, in the words of Gia Milinovich, that:

“anything even slightly ‘gender critical’ or with a feminist analysis will [be] met with death threats… that’s the real story.”

So, no changes there! The reasons for pulling out were given as follows, Paris said he was

“not prepared to enter into a fabricated debate about trans people’s right to exist/express themselves.”

Which is pretty stupid given I am trans myself. Fred McConnell was no less irrational, she stated she had avoided a

“TERF-filled trap”

How very silly.

Nottingham Women’s Centre

At the end of 2014 I was asked to co-host an event in Nottingham scheduled for February 2015 with RadFem Collective and Julie Bindel, to discuss the no-platforming of radical feminists. The women from RadFem Collective had asked to book the Nottingham Women’s Centre, and the booking was refused when it was said I was to be helping organise this. The site manager was up for this until she was told I would be co-hosting the event, and I was told that she ‘visibly flinched’ on hearing my name. The booking was declined. I’m pleased to say the event went forward and was a tremendous success.

TweetWeek LGBTQ

The TWKLGBTQ is a Twitter project where the Twitter feed is curated a week at a time by members of the LGBTQ community. Anyway, myself and someone I was seeing at the time were scheduled to curate the account from 18 March 2015, the account owner was supportive:

As much as I have nothing against a bit of controversy, I don’t want to start another Twitterstorm. As long as you two feel like you can stand your ground against any haters then I’m more than happy to hand over the account for a week

My co-curator remarked:

it’s fair to say we’re not the most well-loved people among mainstream trans Twitter.

I’d expect some pushback from a few people opposed to us curating the account, but on the other hand I can think of plenty of other people who would be pleased that you were giving some time to alternative views, so I think it would balance out in the end.

Of course, there was a total shitstorm and as per usual right at the centre of this was Sarah ‘formaldehyde pickled balls’ Brown, one of the most deranged individuals to have ever taken to the internet, known for his hateful obsessive fixations and out of control delusional autogynephilia, Anyway, he made sure our tenture of the account was terminated within a day of us being announced as co-curators. The person who had set us up apologised:

I want to apologise how this all panned out. It wasn’t how I wanted it to go. In my opinion if we left it for at least overnight, the negative comments would have died down and you could have actually curated like anyone else.
However when we have 4 admins and the other 3 is of the opinion that we should pull the plug (and probably questioning why I let you curate in the first place), we had no choice.
I would have loved to have you two curate, don’t care how controversial you are!
So here’s a heartfelt SORRY from me.

Of course a fair number of the people who complained were not even part of the LGBT umbrella, never mind even being trans!

Here’s more background on what happened with @TWKLGBTQ and how the fourth grade fascists of the Block Bot tried to gag me.

Essex LGBT Outhouse East

I’d met several women from Essex Feminist Collective at a talk given by Julie Bindel and myself in Sheffield in early June 2015 and they asked me to address one of their own meetings the next month. EFC tried to book the Outhouse East, a centre in Colchester that exists “to offer support and information to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of Essex”. Anyway, the women booking the venue suggested the centre may wish to invite some of their members down for the presentation I was giving. The response was incredible:

We’ve had several discussions on the topic of you having Miranda Yardley as a speaker, not only with the trustees, but also with our service users.

Outhouse East has a set of core values that stand at the base of our charity. Our mission is “To develop and promoted a sustainable, fair and equal society where all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people can achieve their full potential.” We obtain this by “recognising diversity and achieving equality”.

Whilst we accept that Miranda holds the views that she does and is as entitled to them as any other, we believe that her views contradict Outhouse’s values. Her blogs espouses views that are diametrically opposed to ours, such as denying trans women their womanhood, that trans women have no place in feminism, that trans women should not be allowed in women-only spaces etc.

In order to offer support and opportunities to the trans community, we at Outhouse East recognise the broad spectrum that falls under the trans umbrella, as well as the various intersections between sexuality, gender identity, feminist ideology, disability, race etc. Being a trans women, Miranda has every right to define her identity however she likes. It becomes an issue when she makes these broad statements about the trans community at large. As a side note, many of our service users at the Trans Social expressed outrage and bewilderment at her views, with one particular user saying that having Miranda as a speaker at Outhouse East would be akin to “inviting a Nazi in a synagogue.

Moreover, inviting her as a speaker would be quite inappropriate, considering the values of our patrons (http://www.outhouseeast.org.uk/our-patrons.html), one of whom is the trans activist Paris Lees, who has done tremendous work with trans youth and media.

All in all, we are quite sorry that we cannot grant you permission to have this particular speaker. You are more than welcome to continue using our building within the current agreed terms.

Note the use of political language and transperbole, both of which I have highlighted. At that point in time I was arguing, as I do now, for women’s right to define their own spaces and very much against the misogyny and homophobia that transactivists and their allies spew out with alacrity. The comment comparing my invitation to inviting a Nazi in a synagogue is particularly offensive.

Speakers Corner

On Wendesday 13 September, I was to speak in London with Julia Long on the implications of the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. So, an event to discuss the law that affects women and transseuxals, with a female speaker and a transsexual speaker, what could possibly go wrong?

Screenshot

Initially, two staffers from Stonewall had agreed to speak at this meeting, opposite Julia and myself. The speakers, ‘International Programmes Manager’ Claire House and Bex Stinson, ‘Trans Inclusion Officer’ both pulled out shortly before the date. Following this, the second venue booked,

Lewisham’s Learning Library, had suffered a deluge of complaints from transgender activists and so this second venue was pulled at the last minute. Arranging to meet at the iconic Speakers’ Corner in London, we were met with protestors.

The true extent of violent transgender ideology was revealed when Tarin Woods, a violent man who idolises ANTIFA (I guess making him TRANTIFA) took it on himself to assault an actual woman, Maria Maclachlan.

The events of this pivotal evening are extremely well documented here, here and here.

Shame on this man.

North Surrey Green Party

In October 2017 I was asked to give a talk to the North Surrey Green Party on the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. I was extended this invitation by two senior branch members. Once this was announced, there followed a day of complaints to the coordinator and because of pressure from two members who claim to be ‘non-binary’, Lee-Anne Lawrance and Molly Arthurs, both of whom appear to be gender conforming, Arthurs in particular, the branch gave in to duress and cancelled the engagement on the day before. What then followed shortly after was a meeting a North Surrey Greens to decide democratically whether I was to be allowed to address the local party in a meeting(!) and this was chaired by deputy leader Amelia Womack(!!!). Lee-Anne Lawrance attended this meeting and, I have been advised, used pretty much every tool of emotional manipulation to get her own way during the meeting.

So there you have it: a pair of gender-conforming Green Party activists, neither transsexual, succeeded in getting a transsexual no-platformed.

My Permanent Twitter Ban part 1

In May 2018 I was permanently banned from Twitter for tweeting the hate fact ‘Aimee Challenor is a man’. Which he is.

To achieve this feat, TRAs including Challenor himself approached Twitter’s head of trust and safety Del Harvey.

South East Essex Green Party

In April 2018, the resident fascists at South East Essex Green Party wrote to my Constituency Labour Party demanding I was removed from my post as LGBT Officer, a post to which I had been democratically elected. This was done at the behest of lady-LARPer, part-time forestkin-forager diaper fetishist and serial safeguarding ignorer and overlooker of sexual crimes against young girls, Aimee Challenor.

We Need to Talk About Sex, April 2018

A talk I was contributing to in Bristol, ‘We Need to Talk ABout Sex‘ hosted by the fabulous Venice Allan, was targeted for protest by Misters Uncut. Suffice it to say most of the protestors were masked-up straight white males.

Quakers Meeting House, Leigh on Sea, Essex

After I had spoken at an Equali-tea event at my local Friends Meeting House, I approached the venue to hold my own discussion on transgender issues. This was publicised in a closed Facebook group and one of the group members, a heterosexual female ‘trans ally’, contacted the venue and discouraged their allowing me to book the venue. Here are some extracts of the exchange:

Me: I’ve been asked to give a talk to a group of women from the Southend, Chelmsford and Colchester area, and I was wondering what the availability of the meeting house is like (for a Tuesday evening) and any room hire charge? We’d need the facility for a couple of hours.

Friends Meeting House: Would this be a one off ?(Tuesdays are not always available). Further details of event?

Me: Yes it would be a one off although the women involved may decide to make it an ongoing event. The group is a feminist group. I hope that’s okay with your policies.

FMH: Our policy is that all are welcome to our venue. Do you accept that this would be posted on our facebook page as a public event to which all are welcome however they identify?

Me: Thank yes that will not be a problem!

FMH: I’m not sure if you understand Quakers. We are the Religious Society of Friends of the Truth. You have been disingenuous. Certain information and behaviour has come to light about you and the groups you represent. In view of this we will refuse your booking. Quakers recognise “that of God in everyone”. We cannot condone sowing the seeds of hate for anyone.

In spite of this interference, the meeting went ahead elsewhere, was extremely well-attended by both sides of the debate and overall went pretty damn well.

My Permanent Twitter Ban 2 & 3

I came back with the Twitter account @FearMyHat names of course for my fearsome hat, I came up with the account name ‘21st Century Schizoid Tran’, and this account was banned when I changed my profile photo to one of myself.

The next name I chose was @DrOrlandoWatt named after Kenneth Williams’s character in ‘Carry On Screaming’  I was thrilled to bits I could use the name Dr Orlando Watt!

After a number of online skirmishes typified by responses like ‘I BET YOU’RE NOT A REAL DOCTOR’ and ‘I BET YOU’RE NOT EVEN TRANS’ this account was unfortunately consigned to oblivion when the trannies worked out my identity and went straight to the head of Twitter’s trust and safety, @Delbius, to have me banned quicker than you can say ‘Transtapo’.

It really shows what a miserable, joyless lot they all are that they’d have what I think are a couple of great handles like these removed from the internet forever.

Regina v Miranda Yardley

Transgender activist Helen Islan, of Mermaids, made a police complaint against me. The CPS took this seriously meaning I was subjected to a ten-month campaign of harassment by cop. 

The case went to court, and the judge held there never was any evidence of the harassment claimed and ‘there never was a case’, dismissing the complaint and awarding me costs.

Prior to being charged, Islan had sought to silence me by issuing a threatening letter via Mishcon de Reya, possibly funded by that firm’s LGBT ‘Pink Law’ initiative.

This case of Regina v Miranda Yardley was the first of its kind, and involved someone who is not trans bringing a complaint against a transsexual for what was described by West Yorkshire Police and the CPS as ‘a transgender hate crime’. You really could not make this up.

Gudrun Young, defence barrister, has written a very informative case commentary.

Islan’s comment on this case attempted to absolve herself of responsibility for this happening, which is a breathtaking lie given she had threatened me with civil action and attempted to impose press reporting restrictions for her to hide behind. What a charmer.

Southend West CLP

It’s amazing how far these ideologues are willing to go with their need to extinguish freedom of speech and the discussion of ideas. On 21 March I was ejected from the Southend Labour Facebook pages (two closed discussion groups for members) on the basis that my posts ‘included discriminatory language which is not acceptable’.

I asked what I had said, I was told that ‘(t)he admins felt your comments were creating a hostile environment, particularly for any trans people who may be in the group and reading the comments.’

Again I had to ask what it was I had said which merited my suspension from the groups, and here it is: this is what now counts as being ‘hostile’ and ‘discriminatory’ in the Labour Party of 2019:

Most trans women are heterosexual males

Really?

No to children being taught that girls can be boys. No to attaching transgender ideology to the teaching of gay and lesbian acceptance.

Hell will freeze over before I shut up about this.

I and a friend, a lesbian, were suspended at the same time from the groups by a woman who is in a heterosexual relationship (oh how I love these ‘allies’) at the request of the CLP’s LGBT officer. 

You could not make this up.

 

 

4 Replies to “The Miranda Yardley Index on Censorship”

  1. “Of course a fair number of the people who complained were not even part of the LGBT umbrella, never mind even being trans!”

    Until about 2015-2016, I was one of those “trans women are women” types. I bought into queer theory, identified as asexual, etc. It all boils down to the desire to be seen as MORE progressive than someone else, be more #woke than the person next to you. Apparently being more #woke entails being a rude, irritating person advocating circular ideologies not based in reality, alongside censoring and erasing those ideologies (and biological realities) that contradict yours. I’m American, and we’re once again facing this issue as the “trans women are women uwu” crowd seeks to add “gender identity” to our sex protection laws. I’m a law student too, so goddess willing, I’ll be able to help maybe mitigate some of this? I don’t know. What I do know is that the legal impact this is having on girls and women is what made me go, “Hmm, you know, this isn’t really logical when these protections are about the biological and immutable characteristic of sex.” Mind, I was having those thoughts BEFORE I entered law school.

    I just wish people would be willing to sit down face-to-face, or Skype to Skype, and chat. It’s more personable when you do it that way. I lost a trans male friend because I very sweetly said that femininity is not being female. An older trans male friend told me I should “watch it” because I was sounding “kind of TERFy.” He was an internet friend, so no skin off my back. The OTHER trans male, the previous one, I knew IRL, so it was kind of a bummer because we couldn’t go to cons anymore. But, like, we were at a con together and one man looked between us, probably seeing the VERY obvious: I’m 5’1″, this guy was like… 6″ easily. His physique was different than mine, and I’m built like a dwarf (stout, broad-shouldered). That’s because XX skeletons and XY skeletons aren’t the same. At the time, though, I was like… “discrimination against trans!?” =_=;

    Anyway, just a loudmouthed American really proud of the work you all are doing across the Atlantic. Don’t let these morons bully you with their nonsensical, fictional logic.

  2. This makes for a sad timeline. It’s not getting any better and the fact that the only critical voices being heard are very often associated with far rights or religious views is even more depressing.

  3. It is really easy to say that since you support women’s rights to “define their own spaces” as a defense against the accusation of not wanting trans women in women’s spaces when you don’t define women to include trans women. Sure it’s women’s rights to decide who belongs, and that works for you as long as trans women aren’t ACTUALLY women. Only woman-adjacent. It’s like the whole states’ rights debate about the civil war. Sure it was about states’ rights, but which rights? The right to have slaves. The civil war was about slavery. You don’t want women in women’s spaces. You are a TERF, even if you can’t see it.

    1. “It’s like the whole states’ rights debate about the civil war. Sure it was about states’ rights, but which rights? The right to have slaves. The civil war was about slavery. You don’t want women in women’s spaces. You are a TERF, even if you can’t see it.”

      You’re racist.

      And ‘trans women’ are men.

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