UK Police Investigate Activist Over a Tweet Critical of a Trans Doctor
Maya Forstater has been through the wringer in the UK. Back in 2019 she lost her job as a tax expert after tweeting that people cannot change their sex. Her case went before a judge who ruled against her saying her views were “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
Forstater appealed the decision and in 2021 she won, with a judge ruling her views were protected by law. Two years after that a group of three judges in London ruled that she had been discriminated against for her views and should be paid just over £100,000 in compensation.
All of this was significant not just for herself but because it meant that other people could express critical views on topics related to transgenderism without having to fear losing their jobs.
But it appears that message hasn’t quite gotten through to everyone yet. This week Forstater revealed that she has been under investigation by the police for nearly a year over a tweet.
The alleged offence, which carries a punishment of up to two years in prison, related to a post she wrote on X about Dr Kamilla Kamaruddin, a trans woman and former GP.
After transitioning, Kamaruddin had written of being allowed by patients to perform “more intimate examinations that they did not let me to do when I was a male GP”.
Forstater’s tweet, posted in June last year, said that Kamaruddin “enjoys intimately examining female patients without their consent”.
Her point, which was explained in a linked blog post she had written earlier, was that many women specifically choose to go to a female doctor because they are more comfortable being examined by another woman rather than a man. In this case it wasn’t clear if all of this doctor’s patients, especially new patients who simply saw the doctor listed as female, were aware. Even if they were aware, would they be willing to risk being labeled transphobes for refusing to have a trans-woman examine them?
Today, Forstater wrote about her encounter with police last year after tweeting about the doctor.
Last year I was threatened with arrest and called into Charing Cross Police Station to be questioned for the offence of “malicious communications”, a crime with a penalty of up to two years in prison. 10 months later, I remain under investigation.
The police questioned me about a tweet I had posted concerning a transgender GP, Dr Kamilla Kamaruddin, who I had claimed “enjoys intimately examining female patients without their consent”.
Did I mean to target a member of the transgender community, the police asked me. Did I understand that my tweet could be perceived as transphobic? Did I have any remorse? “Do you have any evidence that Dr Kamarudding examines her patient without consent?” the officer demanded.
She got the impression the police hadn’t read anything she’d said beyond the tweet. If they had, they wouldn’t have asked the questions they did.
Forstater told the Times of London, “I think the investigation shouldn’t have even got as far as questioning me. My tweet isn’t even something that would get deleted by Twitter, let alone for it to be a crime. Being threatened with arrest and then having a police investigation hanging over my head for almost a year now has been very stressful.”
Hopefully, the publicity surrounding this will embarrass the police into dropping it. Forstater has already won this battle in court. She’s allowed to speak up about this in public.
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