A Norwegian feminist faces up to three years in prison for saying that biological men can’t be lesbians.
Yes, really.
Christina Ellingsen, of the global feminist organization Women’s Declaration International (WDI), is under police investigation for making the claim in a tweet in which she criticized the trans activism group FRI.
“Why [does] FRI teach young people that males can be lesbians? Isn’t that conversion therapy?” Ellingsen allegedly tweeted.
She also questioned the legitimacy of FRI’s advisor Christine Jentoft identifying as a lesbian despite being born a biological male.
“Jentoft, who is male and an advisor in FRI, presents himself as a lesbian – that’s how bonkers the organization which supposedly works to protect young lesbians’ interests is. How does it help young lesbians when males claim to be lesbian, too?” Ellingsen reportedly said.
“You are a man. You cannot be a mother,” Ellingsen allegedly told Jentoft. “To normalize the idea that men can be mothers is a defined form of discrimination against women.”
“Amnesty International is also accusing Ellingsen of harassment for saying that Jentoft is a man on national television,” reports
Reclaim the Net.
Norway’s hate crime laws were made more draconian last year to make criticizing gender ideology a crime and Ellingsen faces up to three years in prison if she is convicted.
“To certain groups, the fact that women and girls are female and that men cannot be women, girls, mothers or lesbians, is considered hateful,” Ellingsen told
Reduxx, adding that the police are investigating her for “for campaigning for women’s rights.”
“The fact that police are legally able to investigate and persecute women who engage in women’s rights is concerning,” said Ellingsen
“This is new territory in Norway, so the outcome of the investigation is important, both if the case is dismissed and if it leads to trial,” she added.
However, the precedent has already been set by a 2021 case where a Norwegian man was jailed for three weeks and fined for “misgendering” someone who identifies as transgender on Facebook.
While Americans merely face social media bans for saying men can’t be women, in some European countries, making the claim risks actual imprisonment.
Similar threats are also made against those who criticize the LGBT movement.
Former Finnish minister Päivi Räsänen faced
hate speech charges for citing Bible verses which described homosexuality as “shameful” and “unnatural,” although she was later acquitted.
As we
highlighted last year, a Christian pastor in the UK was arrested by police on the streets of London after a member of the public reported him for the “homophobic” comment of saying that marriage was between a man and a woman.
Last year, officers in Merseyside
took part in an electronic ad campaign outside a supermarket which claimed “being offensive is an offence.”
In 2019, UK police
investigated the potential “hate crime” of a transgender woman being turned down for a porn role because she still has a penis.
A video
published by the UK government Home Office in 2020 also suggested that insulting someone’s appearance now constitutes a “hate crime,” despite this not being the law.
