Gay Author John Boyne, causes LGBT literary prize meltdown

Oh cool, I was wondering what today’s outrage thread would be.

What "outrage" exactly?

There have been calls for a gay author to be excluded from a prize for LGBT writing for him being "transphobic". That has nothing to do with the quality, or not, of his writing.

You can bet your life the likes of Juno Dawson would never be excluded from these sort of things despite the homophobic crap they've come out with in their time.

If the correctness of the argument that “trans women are women no matter what ” is so self-evident, why suppress opposing views?

This kind of “cancellation” over policy disagreements does no one on the left any good. Intolerance of dissent demonstrates a lack of confidence in the justness of their own views. And it enables censorship by the right.

He's entitled to his views and he shouldn't be penalised for airing them.

That said, as far as I can tell, his writing has nothing to do with gender ideology so I don't know why he continually makes a song and a dance about it all. The cynic in me wonders if it's a way of drumming up publicity for his books. If so, it's worked.

Perhaps he feels a need to defend other writers who are being cancelled for expressing similar views. Like Rowling.

[quote]That said, as far as I can tell, his writing has nothing to do with gender ideology so I don't know why he continually makes a song and a dance about it all.

Because he’s pro-women’s rights and a citizen. Stephen King doesn’t write books about politics. Should he shut up about Trump?

Virtue signaling and a bunch of crybabies who need to grow the fuck up.

[quote] That said, as far as I can tell, his writing has nothing to do with gender ideology

Boyne's 2019 book My Brother's Name Is Jessica, about a young boy coming to terms with his older sibling coming out as a trans girl, was criticised over its portrayal of transgender topics and for misgendering people. In an article in The Irish Times promoting the book, Boyne explained that he was inspired to write it by a transgender friend of his, and had spoken to gender-identity professionals and "several trans people" to ensure he portrayed the book's subject matter authentically. However, he received further criticism for stating in the article that "I reject the word 'cis'... I don't consider myself a cis man; I consider myself a man." He added that "while I will happily employ any term that a person feels best defines them... I reject the notion that someone can force an unwanted term on to another".[30][31]

Boyne deleted his Twitter account, citing social media harassment, though he would later rejoin the site.[32][33][29] Some writers have supported him.[34][35] In 2020, comedian and writer Aidan Comerford, who had repeatedly accused Boyne of transphobia, issued an apology via Twitter. Comerford admitted that his tweets about Boyne "were relentless harassment" that had caused Boyne "great distress". Boyne responded by saying: "I am grateful for Aidan Comerford's apologies and retractions and, outside of that, I have no further comment."[36]

He alluded to the backlash he received over the book again in a newspaper column in 2021. Although Boyne did not mention Comerford by name, he referenced someone who "admitted that he'd been engaged in a determined campaign of 'relentless harassment'", and then "slithered back to his subterranean cavern to lick his wounds".[37]

The transtapo went nuts because he used the wrong pronouns for a character in his book.

He was all pro-trans until they tried to lynch him.

[quote]Perhaps he feels a need to defend other writers who are being cancelled for expressing similar views. Like Rowling.

I think JKR is more than capable of standing up for herself.

[quote]Because he’s pro-women’s rights and a citizen. Stephen King doesn’t write books about politics. Should he shut up about Trump?

Not completely, but if he keeps ranting about Trump to the extent Boyne rants about gender ideology then yes. There's only so many times you can say the same thing. We get what your opinion is, move it on.

But I can't be arsed because any time this topic comes up people who are equally as obsessed as Boyne is appear from nowhere and start ranting. See ya.

Defending Rowling on free speech doesn’t suggest she is too weak to defend herself. What a pathetic argument.

I disagree with Rowling on trans issues and I think her attitudes have been shaped by the vehemence of the attacks on her to make her more extreme on the issue than she ever set out to be.

But I oppose censorship and cancellatioon principle and as a matter of strategy. This behavior does more damage to trans rights than good. Rowling is a liberal champion and probably would have supported almost all of the trans rights movement, but her reluctance to give up the right to very limited cis-female-only spaces has turned her into an enemy and no doubt alienated many people who agree with her on that narrow issue.

Rather than engage on the topic and persuade her and people who think like her to think again, she is declared a public enemy and vilified.

Only a very insecure and weak movement would behave this way. It’s self-defeating.

The cancellation of this other because he doesn’t endorse imposing the label cis-man on 99% of the men out there is a similar example.

^cancelation on principle

I think he's a good writer but TERFS are idiots.

TERFs are allowing their emotions to rule them on certain issues. I think, ironically, they are employing the same kind of “solidarity” arguments that progressives advocating for trans rights themselves employ, but they feel the solidarity with the feelings of women who have been traumatized by men and seek spaces where men are not allowed above the feelings of trans women.

Which empathy is entitled to more weight is, I think, a matter of opinion, but even if I am wrong, and there is an indisputable rational argument why one empathy must give way to the other, the idea that you are going to declare all-out war on TERFs seems . . . Counterproductive.

[quote]I think he's a good writer but TERFS are idiots.

Misogynist pig alert!

[quote]TERFs are allowing their emotions to rule them on certain issues.

Unlike trannies who can’t deal with reality. Fuck off.

[quote] He added that "while I will happily employ any term that a person feels best defines them... I reject the notion that someone can force an unwanted term on to another."

Couldn't agree more with Boyne. If anyone used the terms "cis" or "queer" about me, I'd go for their throat.

This kind of nonsense does progressives no favors, as we saw in our own last presidential election. They need to separate themselves politically from this shit.

But attacking "trannies" is just as gross as saying "fags"--it's an epithet and it makes those saying these things hateful hicks.

Care to join us in 2025, r6? We all know that "cancelled" is code for "publicly criticized". JK is cancelled in the same way Dave Chappelle is canceled. She's still rich, given a media platform whenever she wants it and works continuously. Some cancellation. It's just a right-wing buzzword at this point.

John Boyne was nominated for a prize celebrating LGB AND "T". Terfs are pretty much anti-t by definition. (Trans-exclusionary is in their acronym). So the reactions of the other authors does not seem a stretch to me, since Boyne has defined himself as a terf

I AM OUTRAGED

ARE YOU OUTRAGED?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

I AM OUTRAGED

ARE YOU OUTRAGED?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

I AM OUTRAGED

ARE YOU OUTRAGED?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

I AM OUTRAGED

ARE YOU OUTRAGED?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

I AM OUTRAGED

ARE YOU OUTRAGED?

THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

If I see any more Jews in pajamas, I’m going to kill myself.

I can understand if you object to the word “cancellation,” but whatever you want to call it, being declared an enemy of trans rights does have consequences. Rowling and the subject of this thread face threats and boycotts for relatively minor departures from the progressive orthodoxy on trans rights.