I spoke the truth. And I'm going to court for it.

First, they came for our spaces, then our sports, our language, our opportunities and our children. Now, they’re coming for our thoughts and our voices. I’m a Councillor with the Hobart City Council, arguably one of the wokest councils in Australia. I’m also a wife, mother and firm believer in freedom of belief and expression. I know how critically important tolerance and inclusion is to our democracy. Inclusion goes far beyond race, age, sexual orientation and other variables. True inclusion is also diversity in belief and opinion. The fundamental rights that underpin our democratic way of Australian life are under the type of attack we never would have thought possible only a handful of years ago. For me, this attack is hitting very close to home and my hip pocket. DONATIONS WELCOME I’ll soon be fronting the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal facing an allegation that I have ‘incited hatred on the basis of gender identity’. My supposed crime? I spoke the truth. The pathway here began when I spoke at a Let Women Speak women’s rights event outside Parliament House in Hobart in March this year. As part of my speech, I stated that “transwomen are transwomen and remain biological men” and that someone “cannot be raped with a penis, if there is no penis present”, in reference to the valid need for some female-only spaces. Clear thinking people know these to be undeniable truths, yet I’m absurdly being taken to court for saying them.

What we’re seeing is the pinnacle of gender ideology madness. The lunacy has gone beyond the loss of once female-only vulnerable spaces, like changerooms, toilets and shelters. It’s well advanced in women’s sport where men are celebrating from the top of the women’s podium. We have male rapists being housed in women’s prisons. Women have lost their language, as ‘she’, ‘her’ and ‘woman’, is now under the ownership of, and ‘inclusive’ of, men. It’s no surprise when a man is the keynote speaker for an International Women’s Day event. And now the final frontiers – controlling and compelling the beliefs, thoughts and speech of others.

To complete the domination, activists and their well-funded ideology driven organisations are weaponising legislation to silence people who don’t subscribe to the religion gender ideology. The concept of gender ideology is just a set of beliefs, but more like a cult given questions are not permitted. Thankfully, in Australia at least, we would never see people being taken to Court for not believing in someone else’s religion, which is essentially what is happening here. Taxpayer money is being shamefully chewed up on punishing people for speaking the truth, and making an example of them so that other non-believers dare not even try. Defending such absurdity – especially when there are Constitutional questions at hand – doesn’t come cheap. I’ve already invested thousands personally in our fight to speak the truth and our fair and valid opinion, but backup is needed to defend this right as far and high as we need to.

Laws around stamping out real incitement of hatred and violence are undoubtedly needed, but setting the threshold so ridiculously low is a full-blown assault on our implied right to freedom of belief, freedom of expression and political communication. Yes, I could have grovelled when the complaint that ignited this firestorm first reared its head. I could have begged for forgiveness and made promises to ‘do better’ – ‘I’m so sorry for hurting your feelings’ and, ‘of course you’re a woman’, – but that is lying, and I won’t do that. Truth, reality, science and safety and fairness for women and girls are more important than the feelings of some men.

‘I’m offended’ cannot dictate where the bar on allowable public discourse is set. We all have the capacity to be offended by something, and being offended is part of being in a society. This is even more clear cut when the ‘offence’ stems from fact. We all have facts we wish were not true, but they are, and no amount of outrage can change that. The possibility of being offended goes hand-in hand with the right to speak – it’s a two-way exchange. In exchange for your right to speak, you accept the prospect of offense when others do. Being offended is part-and-parcel of diversity, debate and democracy. The vast majority of Australians are on the same page as me. We don’t wish transwomen any harm and we want to ‘be kind’ but we won’t lie, and we won’t compromise the fair and valid needs of women. This complaint even being accepted for investigation shows that the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner is on a different wavelength to the general population. All sane people know that this situation is ludicrous. We know that humans cannot change sex and that males, as a collective, are bigger, stronger and present an inherent risk to women. Statistics show that 97 per cent of sex offenders are men. There is nothing ‘progressive’ about prioritising the demands and feelings of some men over women’s safety, fairness, dignity and rights. There is nothing righteous about declaring that facts are hate and only one view is allowed. There is too much at stake to not fight back on this obscene level of censorship.