Miranda Yardley was the first person in the UK charged with an anti-transgender hate crime. Hilariously, or ironically, or tragically, Yardley himself medically transitioned at some point (though does not identify as a woman), and the person who charged him wasn’t of the trans persuasion. No matter!
Yardley has been actively supporting the pushback against encoding gender identity in law for years, working alongside fellow residents of TERF Island. I wanted to talk to him about how free speech and the movement interrelate, because, as we know from Graham Linehan’s arrest, UK residents do not have a constitutional right to free speech, and some women have been even arrested for their inconvenient truth Tweets, naming the biological reality of sex.
Yardley also explained some of the inner workings of social media censorship, which I found fascinating.
Bio: Miranda Yardley has been speaking out against gender identity extremism since 2013. In 2018 he was questioned, arrested and charged with harassment with the aggravating factor of ‘transgender hate crime’. The attempted prosecution was thrown out of court with the judge stating ‘there never was a case’.
