A few months back I posted a few comments on recent legal developments in various jurisdictions pertaining to compulsory "pronoun" usage. I commented at length as to matters of compelled speech, orwellian re-definitions, and so on. See, e.g., here, here, here, here.
Our Analytics responded. See, e.g., here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
One of the big differences in our respective positions is that I am strongly opposed to compelled speech, to the government using the force of law to punish people who say things the government does not want them to say, or to punish people who do not want to say things the government seeks to compel/coerce them to say (such as "preferred pronouns"). Meanwhile, Analytics seemed to broadly deny that governments are starting to pass laws, or enforce existing ones, which seek to punish "pronoun" usage (though elsewhere he seemed to approve of such laws - I'll let him address that if he likes).
I provided a number of examples of these laws here and here. I cited instances of this happening in California, New York, Virginia, Canada, the UK, and Norway.
Here's another one from Norway that just recently came out:
The link beneath the tweet above is to this story: “Men Are Men”: Norwegian Artist Facing Criminal Charges, Potential Prison Sentence Over Gender Comments
A few thoughts/observations here:
First, I think most of the aggression in the Pronoun Wars is coming from the "T" in LGBT.
Second, there seems to be some substantial fracturing going on in LGBT coalition, with the "Ts" and the "Ls" becoming increasingly at loggerheads.
Third, I find it noteworthy that the "T" agitators are willing to punish "Ls" who do not acquiesce in the Pronoun Wars, and to use the organs of the State to do so. This really seems to be accelerating.
"A man who claims to be a lesbian mother."
No, that's not a pitch for an SNL skit or a sitcom episode.
To paraphrase the saying (which itself is an adaptation of a line in Shakespeare's The Tempest), "resisting compelled speech makes strange bedfellows."
I, as an adult male American and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, am wholly supportive of lesbian Norwegian filmmaker Tonje Gjevjon on this point.
"Up to three years in prison."
For saying words. For giving voice to ideas the government dislikes.
I think this sort of thing is going to increase in frequency and severity unless actively opposed. Credit to Gjevjon for her efforts.
A translation of the above police notice to Gjevjon:
Yeesh.
Alas, "being disavowed" is sometimes the price to be paid for standing by one's convictions.
I think the issue becomes substantively more problematic, though, when the government wades in and starts throwing its weight around.
"Queer organizations" can, I suppose, do as they like. But when "politicians" start to take sides in such matters, and when they start to pass laws to compel speech or punish what ought to be Free Speech, that becomes problematic.
Anyway, back to the first article:
I have expressed concern about this phenomenon quite a few times.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the most important pieces of thought in the history of the world. It preserves, or is intended to preserve, individual liberties from encroachments and threats by the State. I find it interesting that the Latter-day Saints owe so much to this small bit of writing, but we are far from the only ones. I value the common ground I, as a male Latter-day Saint in Utah, share with Gjevjon, Norwegian lesbian filmmaker relative to valuing Free Speech. This includes resisting compelled speech, and it is a concern as central to my interests as a Latter-day Saint in America as to Gjevjon's interests as a lesbian and artiste in Norway.
Thanks,
-Smac
