Today, the Western Standard received a formal notice of legal proceedings against it from the radical trans-ideologist, Jessica Yaniv, who is threatening to bring a complaint before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and launch a civil lawsuit unless we apologize and change our editorial policy.
This guy says that by not using his made-up preferred pronouns, we exposed him to “hatred, contempt, and ridicule.”
While we certainly do not hate the man, we most certainly have extreme contempt for him, and have ridiculed him and his ideology, proudly and consistently, since the re-founding of the Western Standard more than six years ago.
There is nothing wrong with having contempt for contemptible people doing contemptible things.
Yaniv alleges that our “mis-gendering” of him is a “systemic, editorial posture, and not an isolated incident.” In that, he is entirely correct. In fact, here is our editorial policy on the matter, straight from our Style Guide:
“Jessica” is a male, because she was born with a penis.
His every instance of newsworthy coverage in the Western Standard has been directly related to his belief that he is a woman, and that other people should be compelled by the law to pretend that this is true. Therefore, we use his real (that is, biological) sex when describing him in our stories.
I’ve interviewed several transgender people over the years for stories where their sex and trans ideology are not relevant, and so I called them by whatever they liked. Because (on most days), I like to think I’m a nice guy. When Mr. Yaniv gained prominence by trying (and failing) to sue some poor immigrant ladies for refusing to wax her balls.
Mr. Yaniv’s actions were clearly contemptible, and the Western Standard’s coverage reflects that contempt.
So, in short, we are guilty. Guilty as sin.
But in a free country, we are allowed to hurt people’s feelings. And based on his history of vexatious litigation, almost everything offends Mr. Yaniv.
In a free country, free people are allowed to disagree peacefully in the strongest possible terms about the emergence of a radical new political and social ideology.
Now comes the shameless sales pitch.
The Western Standard doesn’t raise money for activism; it generally does so only for special projects, such as expanding into new provinces or journalism beats.
In this case, we need to raise money for a vigorous legal defence. If you can make a contribution to help the Western Standard defend our freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, I’d be very grateful.
We have already engaged top-tier lawyers to craft our legal defence.
We will fight this legal case entirely on the grounds that it is our God-given right as free men and free women to say it. That our freedom of speech trumps his right not to be offended. That the freedom of the press beats his right to force people to lie.
This legal case is important not just for the Western Standard, but for the important legal and constitutional precedents that could be set.
If the Western Standard were to lose, every single other Canadian citizen and media outlet would be subject to the same restrictions on free speech and requirements for compelled speech.
That is clearly unacceptable.
And even if the courts and the BC Human Rights Tribunal were to win, the Western Standard will refuse to pay Mr. Yaniv one red cent.
I will be found in contempt of court and go to prison before I submit to totalitarianism.
Frankly, us facing charges for this is a good thing. It allows us to clear the air once and for all.
I hope you will stand with us in this fight for our liberty. We need your help.