News from Salem

The bullying of those who dissent from transgender dogma is out of control

Examination of a Witch; Tompkins Matteson, 1853

Two stories from Britain over the last day or so provide more graphic evidence than ever of the terrifying drift into ideological witch-hunting by the nation that once gave political liberty and liberal tolerance to the world.

A Christian mathematics teacher, Joshua Sutcliffe, has been banned indefinitely from the teaching profession for calling girls girls, and for refusing to use the preferred pronoun of a transgender pupil who identified as a boy but to whom he referred as “she” and “her”.

He says:

I believe affirming children in gender confusion in the classroom is psychologically damaging for them. I refuse to go against my conscience and cause a child harm and refuse to apologise for that.

For refusing to go along with the hijack of language and the sacrifice of reason and the interests of children on the altar of ideology, Sutcliffe has had his reputation trashed and has been banned from teaching in any school, sixth form college or children's home in England. He can apply for the ban to be lifted in 2025.

He also commented:

I have been bullied and pursued and have had every part of my life scrutinised for expressing my Christian faith and biological truth.

Once again, we see someone persecuted because his Christian beliefs causes him to dissent from secular liberal dogma.

But this witch-hunt goes far beyond Christians. It’s now targeting people at the very heart of the liberal consensus which is shattering under the impact, along with the reputation and well-being of those being victimised for having a different view — including standing up for the rights of women and the protection of children from harm. 

Today’s Mail carries a report of the onslaught upon the chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Kishwer Falkner, over the transgender issue. After she backed legal reforms protecting the rights of biological women in single-sex spaces such as hospital wards and toilets, commission employees constructed a hit-job against her, a dossier of tendentious complaints and vilification including claims of discrimination, “transphobia”, bullying and harassment. These complaints, which led to an investigation headed by a senior lawyer, have been leaked to the achingly right-on Channel Four News which is reportedly about to run an item on the affair.

This all resembles the tactics of the Soviet Union, the French revolutionaries’ Committee of Public Safety and the Inquisitors of the medieval Catholic church. And this is happening under a Conservative government. 

The details of what has happened to both Joshua Sutcliffe and Kishwer Falkner are beyond chilling.