Much more than too much

Recently I wrote about the case of Marion Millar, a mother of vulnerable children who faces prison for tweets. Harmless, innocuous tweets. I know they’re harmless, because I’ve looked at Marion’s timeline. You can look, too.

Marion’s case is ongoing and I’m not allowed to name the cowardly, bullying gobshite who reported her to the police in case it prejudices the outcome.

Unfortunately, this also means I shouldn’t name the chicken-shit bellend who similarly reported my friend Ceri Black, also for supposedly malicious tweets.

Because they are the same person. This is a man whose approach to activism is to report women with opinions to the police one at a time. It’s a silencing tactic. And when the silencing doesn’t work (as it won’t in either Marion’s or Ceri’s case) it becomes a smearing tactic.

But let’s be clear: Ceri Black: mother, lesbian, activist, co-founder of LGB Alliance Ireland, was reported to the Irish Police Service for tweets. The police now want to interview her under caution for:

Offences under the malicious communications act, homophobic hate crime, transphobic hate crime

https://twitter.com/FemmeLoves/status/1451291505751203848

That’s right, the co-founder of a lesbian, gay and bisexual advocacy group is being investigated for homophobia at the instance of a man known to have form in using the police as a tool for political activism.

The Irish Police Service fairly leaped into action in stark contrast to the way they responded when Ceri previously reported targeted abuse, rape and death threats against her. On those occasions they advised her to stop posting “political” things online.

They ignored the credible threats and blamed the victim.

Now that a man of dubious character and intent has maliciously fabricated offences against Ceri, they can’t do enough to accommodate him.

Ceri was due to speak at the #ComeOutOfStonewall event in Belfast yesterday. She used her talk to speak about her treatment.

Her wife, the brilliant Lauren, filmed it.

I can’t say anything that will beat that. Watch it. Be disgusted at the man who did this to both those women. But be more disgusted at the police forces of Ireland and Scotland who piously capitulated with the demands of a demented, power-drunk bully.

And be more disgusted still at Stonewall: the organisation that has so ideologically captured these and many other UK police forces and public bodies, that the bullying of innocent women has become prioritised over the policing of death and rape threats.

Ceri doesn’t hate. She only tries to help people.

#IStandWithCeriBlack

#IStandWithMarionMillar

And if you don’t, there is something disturbing wrong with you.

More on Stonewall in a later post. With Extra Dinosaur Footage!

James Billingham

James Billingham (and here, and here), also known as @oolon, also known as Kilgore Sprout, @TheOnlySprout and doubtless as many other socks is harassing Marion Millar, of whom I’ve written before. Again.

Buffalo Billingham

This is at least his second attempt to take down Marion’s crowdfunding page. His previous attempt was partially successful; Marion took down the page herself because in the confusion he helped sow, she believed that a percentage of the donations were going to a charity she felt her donors would not support. The page is now back up (donate if you can) and hopefully safe from interference.

Billingham is trying to interfere nevertheless, as reported here. He’s urging people to mob the companies providing the various payment services and bombard them with misinformation to scare them into withdrawing those accounts.

This is anti-justice and it’s anti-democratic. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty and deserves the right to make the best case for their defence that they can. Nobody should interfere with that right.

Billingham is free to deplore those of us who have donated to Marion’s legal case, but he mustn’t be allowed to take away the basic services she’s using to manage those donations. If the tables were turned, I’d sincerely hope that Billingham had the means to raise money to defend himself, although I’d be disgusted at anyone who dontated.

I don’t want to waste many more words on Billingham, but be aware that he is a man without a sense of shame. There are no lengths he won’t go to or depths to which he won’t plunge to achieve what would seem to us like negligible gains. He lies like he excretes, and with much the same effect. This is all classic predatory behaviour.

If you’re disgusted by his actions too, you can report him to Twitter for targeted harassment here, using the tweets posted on Graham’s substack or many, many others in Billingham’s Twitter account. Be wary of confronting him about his behaviour, though; he’ll use any tactic to hurt you if you piss him off. His only purpose is to bully, and to bully women in particular.

This is the first time I’ve called for anyone to be suspended from Twitter. Hopefully, it’s the last. I don’t actually want Billingham removed from Twitter forever, I think that’s a cruel fate which goes against all my principles and instincts.

But I think this behaviour has to be stopped. Report him if you like, and don’t forget to donate to Marion’s defence fund if you can.

Marion has been doxxed, threatened, stalked and harassed. She has been frightened for herself, for her livelihood and for her children. This is all just sport for people like Billingham. Help put a stop to it, please.

Support Marion Millar

I’ve written about Marion before, here and elsewhere. You might remember her. From her crowdfunder site:

Marion Miller, a 50 year old mother of six was contacted by police on the 28th of April 2021, and was told that they wished to question her regarding complaints about Tweets she had published.

After a few months and a number of rescheduled appointments, Marion was charged on the 3rd of July 2021 with charges relating to section 127 of the Malicious Communications Act.

Marion attended court on the 31st August 2021 where she was advised shortly before appearing that the charges had been changed, and she was now charged with breach of the peace and 2 aggravation charges of homophobia and transphobia. At this time Marion made no plea.

Since then Marion has been publicly doxxed, received numerous credible violent threats against her AND HER CHILDREN, been subject to vicious smear campaigns, attacks on her business, numerous disgusting messages and the most dreadful campaign of harassment.

Marion intends to vigorously defend herself against these charges but needs your help with the legal fees.

If you’re able to help, please do.

https://marionmillar.uk/

The text doesn’t really explain the outrage that the charges against Marion should evoke. We don’t know exactly which tweets led to the charges, although we have a pretty good idea. I’m not allowed to say much about them because that would be contempt of court and might interfere with her case.

But note that neither Marion nor Twitter have removed any tweets and you can see all her tweets here. You can decide for yourself whether you think anything she said ought to be a criminal offence.

I do not. Freedom of speech is under attack in the UK and nobody has the right to not be offended. The police should absolutely not be involved and a woman should not be facing prison for what are certainly perfectly reasonable tweets. She shouldn’t have to face the threats and doxxing of her and her children. Her livelihood should not be threatened.

She shouldn’t be bullied, that is, for her beliefs, which have been ruled worthy of respect in a democratic society.

The charge that Marion is homophobic and transphobic is ludicrous. Here’s a picture of the back seat of her car when she arrived at court on 31st August. That’s Mr Menno (a gay man) and Seven Hex (a trans-identified male), who are both Marion’s friends and supporters.

Marion is being bullied for believing that sex is important, nothing more.

Support her if you can, and see if you can get this hashtag trending again.

#IStandWithMarionMillar

Leave Marion Millar alone

I can’t say too much about this case because it is ongoing and I don’t wish to prejudice it or be found in contempt of court.

What I can say is that Marion Millar, a mother of two vulnerable children, has been charged by Scottish police under the Malicious Communications Act in relation to tweets which are allegedly homophobic and transphobic in nature.

“Notorious homophobe and transphobe” Marion Millar arrives at court on August 31st 2021 with Mr Menno and Seven Hex, a gay man and a transsexual male.

Those charges are ludicrous for at least four reasons: first, Marion is not a homophobe or a transphobe and there are many gay and trans people among her supporters. The image above shows the back seat of Marion’s car as she arrived at court on August 31st 2021 with her friends Mr Menno (a gay man) and Seven Hex (a transsexual male). Second, even Twitter, which is notoriously censorial and hair-triggered when it comes to trans issues has apparently not deemed the tweets in question transphobic or homophobic. It has not suspended Marion’s account and it has not deleted the tweets in question.

Third, a woman is being threatened with up to two years in prison for tweets. One might be offended by a tweet, but nobody has the right not to be offended. Police Scotland’s action of arresting, charging and trying a woman for something as subjective and deliberately ill-defined as ‘hatred’ or ‘offence’ is more chilling – more offensive by far- than anything Marion could possibly have tweeted.

Finally, much worse things are tweeted every single day. Much worse things have been tweeted at Marion (including credible threats, horrible accusations and a great deal of hatred). Much worse things have been tweeted even at me, a very marginal voice on this issue. Much worse is tweeted in enormous volume at women as a matter of banal routine. Children’s authors receive pipe bomb threats. Women are gleefully hounded from public spaces day after day because a small group of people does not like their views or their tenacity.

If Marion is convicted of these insane charges, she faces up to two years in jail. Her vulnerable children will be placed at further risk. Because of tweets. Her business, livelihood, relationship and, now, her home are already at risk because of repeated (and largely successful) efforts by gender identity extremists to shut down every attempt Marion and her supporters make to raise funds for her defence.

I want to be very clear here. Everyone in the UK has the right to mount the best defence they can when they’re charged with a crime. This is the case regardless of the charges or what anyone might believe about their character. Interfering with a person’s ability to mount a defence is not virtuous. It is anti-democratic, it is anti-justice and it is the act of a bully.

Because of these repeated attempts to shut down her ability to mount a defence, Marion has, as of yesterday, stated that she will no longer be seeking financial assistance and has placed her house on the market to raise the money she needs without help. She has done this because she wants to avoid placing further stress on her friends and supporters and putting them in harm’s way.

If you’re one of the people who has interfered with Marion’s ability to mount a defence then you need to stop it at once and carefully examine your motives and your life. I doubt you’d bay so keenly for blood if the cause or the person were ones you admired.

If you didn’t know this was happening, then you do now and have no excuse.

And if you aren’t shouting this travesty from the rooftops then – with a close eye on your own safety – you should be.

This is a terrifying overreach of power by Police Scotland and it’s a matter that affects us all. Unlike those attacking Marion, blinded by their ideology, my position on tweeting would remain the same regardless of the tweets: free speech is essential and must be protected. Some speech has consequences, but those consequences must be in proportion to any offence. Mobs must not rule what may be said in public. My position on mounting a defence would also remain the same, regardless of charges or circumstance: any attempt to interfere with a defence – including fundraising – is anti-democratic and anti-justice. And it’s shameful.

But as it happens, I stand with Marion Millar. I don’t believe for a moment that she’s done anything wrong. I don’t believe she’s transphobic or homophobic. I don’t think she’s hateful or has conducted herself in a hateful way.

She’s guilty of nothing more than standing up for the rights of women in Scotland and refusing to wheesht. This latter remains, as it always has been, the greatest offence a woman can commit.

Marion Millar

#IStandWithMarionMillar

#WomenWontWheesht

News teasers! Plus an outing!

First, I have news, which I’ll tease now and then cover in full in a few days: my new chair is finally on the verge of being ordered! The retailer is slow but, I have to say, thorough, and we’ve made sure all the measurements and accessories and attachments are right and the from just needs to be sent to the manufacturer. Delivery is expected round about the end of August, but I’m pessimistically going to add a couple of weeks onto that. Various people have proposed it, but I know it as Hofstadter’s Law, after Doug Hofstadter:

Everything takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Hofstadter’s law

So I’ll get it when I get it, August or September, but at least the details are finalised and the damn thing is on it’s way. Possibly.

Those details are the things I want to talk about, because they’re all important parts of buying a wheelchair and ones which nobody told me about. I didn’t even know that some of the things were things I needed to know. But I don’t have time for that because I’m up early in the morning to go on an outing!!! So more on the measurements/attachments/accessories in a day or so.

The outing is to Glasgow, where I’m meeting a bunch of nice people brought together by the case of one Marion Millar. Again, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to cut my description short until I get back. This is because there’s a great deal to write about and some of it is central to the reason I’m writing this blog. The reason I’m training for half marathons in the first place. The reason I’m going through the mystical complications of buying a new wheelchair. So I want to spend some time on getting it right. It’s a free speech issue and in particular an issue about women being silenced because of their views. I happen to agree with Marion’s views (her actual views rather than some of the false, hyperbolic versions you might come across) but if I didn’t, I’d still be supporting her right to hold them. Police Scotland disagree, as does a contingent of social media and a cavalcade of cowardly politicians and celebrities, who should be ashamed of themselves. Because of it, a woman and her family are living under the endlessly-drawn-out threat of her prosecution and possible jail sentence for the ‘crime’ of Tweeting.

But no time for that now! This will be my first longish journey by myself since I’ve been in the chair and I’m a little anxious about whether I’ve packed the right things and whether the things I’ve chosen are charged. So I’m going to go and completely change my mind about that several times for the next hour and I’ll write more on the train, tomorrow.