MILLENNIAL INTERVIEWS: Meghan Murphy

Canadian feminist, Meghan Murphy has made the spotlight in recent weeks as trans activists attempted to cancel her talk at the Vancouver Public Library. In October, Meghan also spoke in Kitchener, Ontario for the Laurier Society for Open Inquiry in a talk titled "Does Trans Activism Negatively Impact Women's Rights?"

Meghan was also recently banned for Twitter for her views and persistence in questioning trans ideology. She is the founder of Feminist Current, a leading Canadian publication on feminism and the issues affecting women. DZSURDZSA: What was the exact reason that Twitter cited for the suspension of your account? MURPHY: They referenced a Tweet of mine that I’d posted on November 8^th (the suspension happened on November 23^rd), saying “Yeah, it’s him,” attached to a screen shot providing evidence of “JY’s” real identity. I was told I violated their rules against “hateful conduct.” DZSURDZSA: Do you think it has something to do with more than the reason mentioned, such as your past views or public profile? MURPHY: It absolutely was because of my public profile. I am one of the most high profile feminists speaking critically about gender identity ideology and legislation, and people were paying attention to what I was saying. Trans activists with connections at Twitter did not like that. Specifically, “JY” has been getting everyone who tweets his name or any information about him banned or suspended. He recently had my LSOI talk removed from YouTube. He desperately wants to stop this very incriminating information from getting out about him, but by attempting to silence everyone who speaks about him, it has clearly just made things worse, and really amplified the story. The trans activists connected to Twitter also desperately wanted to silence me, because my arguments have gained so much traction, and they know they can’t respond without revealing their ideology to be wholly incoherent. This is why they try to shut everyone up who asks critical questions or challenges gender identity dogma. They know it’s full of holes, but don’t want anyone to see it. DZSURDZSA: Recent changes to Twitter policy prohibit the practice of misgendering and “deadnaming”(using somebody’s pre-transition name) because it is perceived as a form of harassment. Why do you think Twitter is taking these steps? MURPHY: I think trans activists have a lot of power at Twitter and they want to force their ideology onto the public. I think for many of these men, they want to erase their past, which should ring alarm bells. What this ‘misgendering’ and ‘deadnaming’ thing does is to ensure predatory or dangerous men can erase their histories of violence and abuse and avoid accountability, and perhaps continue to predate. The ‘misgendering’ thing forces the public to play along with this lie that a male can simply declare himself female and it becomes so. They are literally trying to criminalize people who challenge this, refuse to play along, and continue to tell the truth about material reality. It’s frightening, to be honest. And dictatorial. DZSURDZSA: Often transgendered activists claim that they are fighting against those “who deny their existence”. How would you argue against this claim? MURPHY: Literally no one is arguing that trans-identified people don’t exist. This is just more dishonesty and manipulation on the parts of trans activists. What I am questioning is the idea of transgenderism itself—the idea that it’s possible to be 'born in the wrong body' (it’s not) or change sex via declaration or surgery. Of course there are people who experience body dysmorphia, who suffer from mental illness, who don’t feel comfortable with gender roles, or who wish they were the opposite sex exist. But that doesn’t mean they literally are a different sex than the sex they are and have always been. This is nonsense. DZSURDZSA: This isn’t the first time that a public figure was removed from a social media platform for what to most people are banal statements. Do you have any advice for those with a large following on how to avoid being silenced while also continuing the dialogue around these issues? MURPHY: No because I don’t think people should follow Twitter’s inconsistent, dogmatic rules. I think people should push back as much as possible. The fact that we are allowing Twitter to control speech and information is incredibly dangerous and we should be fighting this. A giant, multi-billion dollar company should not be permitted to decide who may or may not speak and about what. They should not be allowed to dictate which spiritual beliefs or ideology are correct and which are not. It is one thing to punish users for posting graphic violence or inciting literal violence, but it is another to impose your religion on users, discriminate against people because they hold different political beliefs than you, and create a false reality (i.e. that the majority of the population believes it is possible to switch sex or that people with penises are women.) The vast majority of the world does not believe transgender dogma, yet a few very vocal, very powerful people are trying to pretend as though this is the new norm, and force that ‘norm’ onto us. DZSURDZSA: You’ve mentioned in your tweets and on your blog that people have tried to misconstrue your suspension as a left-wing vs. right-wing issue. Why do you think this is not the case? MURPHY: Well, trans activists and their liberal/left allies, as well as the Canadian media, in general, like to pretend as though all progressives buy into gender identity ideology and support gender identity legislation and the only detractors are right wing, fundamentalist Christians, or ‘alt right.’ But I am none of these things. I am a long time socialist and feminist. Most of those on the left and many in feminism are simply scared to speak out, as I have, because they know they will be punished, threatened, bullied, fired, and ostracized, as trans activists have done or attempted to do to me and many others. Bullying people into silence does not mean they agree with you. DZSURDZSA: Facebook and Twitter are two of the largest social media platforms in the world. If these corporations are actively changing policy to suppress speech they don’t like, what is the alternative? How do people go about showing these companies that they don’t agree with their decisions? MURPHY: I think people need to protest. Contact Twitter’s CEOs, boycott, cover the issue in the media, make sure they hear you and get lots of bad press. Show up at the door — like stage physical protests. It should not be acceptable to allow these companies to dominate discourse and public discussion, then start censoring. Like it or not, Twitter is the modern public square. Writers and journalist in particular have to be on Twitter in order to follow news, build a public profile, find and contact sources, find work, follow stories, engage, etc. To ban journalists who ask questions they don’t like or state facts they don’t like makes them no different than Trump trying to ban media/reporters from covering him who are critical of him or paint him in a negative light. Facebook and Twitter have an incredible amount of power in this world, and we can’t let them force us into silence and submission or dictate our political speech. DZSURDZSA: You mentioned to me that you had a book contract but very recently your publisher backed out of the deal. Where do you go from here, will we be expecting to see any of that project come to fruition? MURPHY: I'm working on getting a bigger publisher. I think it’s a blessing in disguise, to be honest, though I have zero respect for the publisher who made such a cowardly decision. I think the book will be a better fit at a different, bigger publisher that is more equipped to support my message.