An organization called Gender Critical Vermont has canceled a public discussion about “the unforeseen consequences of the transgender agenda,” saying planned protests would make for an unsafe environment.
The event had been set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington.
Critics caught wind of the event and vowed to protest the discussion they considered to be an attack on transgender people and their rights.
“The response of the transgender activist community in Burlington follows a familiar pattern of eroding the principles of free speech and rational discussion,” Gender Critical Vermont wrote in an email Monday afternoon announcing the cancelation.
Peggy Luhrs, a Burlington resident and lesbian activist since the 1970s, is one of the founders of the group and was scheduled to speak at the event. She told Seven Days the decision to cancel is only temporary.
“We will reschedule,” Luhrs said. “We’re going to look for a bigger venue, we’re going to look for a place where we can have security. There’s just no point in having a screaming match.”
According to a statement from Fletcher Free Library director Mary Danko, Gender Critical Vermont reserved a library meeting room for the purposes of hosting a “discussion group for Vermonters who oppose the subversion of Women’s Rights by the transgender agenda.”
The library consulted with the Burlington City Attorney’s Office and concluded the event fell within library guidelines for reserving space and should be allowed, Danko wrote in the statement, which was posted Monday to the library’s website.
“Public libraries have always been organizations that vigorously try to uphold the tenets of free speech on which our country was built. We have fought censorship on many levels, including efforts to ban books that occur still to this day,” Danko wrote.
Critics of the event equated the planned discussion to hate speech and questioned why the city’s public library would allow it to take place.
Is the institution “truly abiding by their standards and directives of not promoting hate speech and violence?” asked Taylor Small, a trans woman who serves as director of health and wellness at the Pride Center of Vermont.
Dana Kaplan, the executive director at Outright Vermont, said he got calls from parents all over Vermont who were concerned that the library was hosting the event.
“I think that there are a lot of folks in our community who feel extreme relief that the event is canceled,” said Kaplan, who is trans.
There’s no trans agenda trying to subvert women’s rights, Kaplan added. The trans agenda, he said, is “of gender liberty where everybody gets to be themselves, and I feel that that is also a feminist agenda.
“I don’t understand the pitting against each other,” Kaplan said. “We’ve got a lot of bigger issues to focus on.”
Luhrs said the group is not a hate group nor was it going to use hate speech. The discussion was titled, “What are the unforeseen consequences of the Transgender agenda?” The description read: “If you are a Woman, Gay Man, Lesbian, Child or Parent, or cherish Free Thought/Speech, you have a stake in this conversation!”
“I’m not a transphobe. I don’t hate trans people,” Luhrs said. “This is about protecting women’s rights and lesbian rights. “
For example, she said, lesbians are often told “they are transphobic if they won’t consider trans women as partners,” even when the trans women have male genitalia.
Luhrs said she also planned to talk about how the trans movement could be hurtful to women’s sports and could undermine laws such as Title IX.
She wanted to discuss her opposition to puberty blocking hormones and gender reassignment surgery for people under the age of 18. Adults should be free to make those choices, but a “wait-and-see” approach is better for minors, Luhrs said.
Ultimately, the medical interventions don’t change her opinion that gender is fixed at birth. “I believe you can’t really change sex,” Luhrs said. “You can pretend you can, but you can’t.”
Trans activists immediately shut down any challenge by labeling opposing views as hate speech, she added.
“This is totally Orwellian as far as I’m concerned,” Luhrs said, adding: “I have never seen so much authoritarianism from the left, except maybe Stalin.”
“I’m a longtime, very out lesbian, and I have no problem with gender nonconforming people,” she continued, “but I have a problem with a certain group that is trying to make all the rules their way.”
The discussion has yet to be rescheduled, Luhrs said.
The debate made its way to the Burlington City Council on Monday night, when Councilor Perri Freeman (P-Central District) introduced a resolution affirming the rights of trans people and condemning discrimination.
“The City of Burlington acknowledges and supports the existence of transgender and nonbinary individuals in our community and supports their rights and freedom to live openly, without fear of retribution,” reads the resolution, which passed unanimously. The city also “condemns any bigotry, hate speech, and exclusionary spaces that are hostile toward the very existence of transgender people.”
Despite the cancelation, two counter-events are still scheduled for Tuesday. From 6:30 to 8 p.m., Burlington resident Laura Hale has reserved the Fletcher Room at the library — next to the room that Gender Critical Vermont had reserved.
Hale’s event will include conversation, art and reading.
‘The intent is to celebrate the queer and trans community in Burlington,” said Hale, who is married to a trans woman.
Outright will host a letter-writing “heck yeah” event. Supporters are invited to visit the nonprofit’s office at 241 North Winooski Avenue in Burlington from 1 to 4 p.m. and write letters of affirmation to Vermont’s trans youth. Kaplan will then ask Fletcher Free Library to display them. Supporters can also email notes to info@outrightvt.org.
Reporter Courtney Lamdin contributed to this story.
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Ahhh, the hate driven, militant lesbians are at it again. Hardly a surprise. You’d see a far different reaction from Luhrs if it was discussion scheduled to fight the lesbian agenda. She’d be screaming and calling it hate speech. Luhrs is a transphobic, hate driven bigot, plain and simple.
My head hurts from trying to understand all of this.
Anyone who holds the opinion that hormone treatment and the allowing of a transition for a child is neglect, or abuse – please read “what we will become” by Mimi Lemay. It is a compelling story about a mother and how she responded when her 2 year old daughter started to tell her – and the world – that she was a boy. It would have been abuse to NOT let this child transition.
All bets are off my dears….. from having any semblance of democracy to ideas about gender. we stand in the dooryard of a very different world, from our environment to our human relationships. get ready, it’s going to be a tricky transition.
Unfortunately, if you go on the Gender Critical subreddit, there is far worse than a discussion of the “trans agenda” going on. How can this woman say she accepts trans people while simultaneously endorsing a subreddit that calls Christine Hallquist a man? Make no mistake, this group doesn’t want trans people around. Go to the subreddit, if you can stand it.
“Is the institution “truly abiding by their standards and directives of not promoting hate speech and violence?” asked Taylor Small”
Sooo…Is this actually part of the instruction given to the library by its bosses (us), and if so who gets to decide what is “hate” speech and what is regular old Free speech? Not this Taylor person I’m sure.
I do not have an issue with this particular event, as it appears to be for adults, and probably helpful. I just wish that there would be such opposition about Drag Queens reading to young children in our public libraries that are supported with (my) tax payer money. THAT is a concern.
The prefrontal cortex that allows rational thought is not developed until age 25. To allow children under the age of 18 to make the decision to have permanent gender-altering medical procedures with lifetime consequences is child abuse or malicious neglect, pure and simple. Life-altering decisions should not be made by the amygdala. I applaud Peggy for having the courage to stand up to the neo-Maoist wing of left-thinking folks in this town.
I don’t understand how some people let fear twist them so far. The so-called “trans agenda” looks a lot like mine: live life, pay the bills, do the chores, enjoy your family and friends, get a creemee now and then.
How do these “gender critical” folks reconcile their opinion that trans youth should not have access to medical transition, such as puberty blockers, WITH parent/guardian consent, yet are fully on board with girls under 18 having full access to medical contraception, abortion, and pre natal care, w/out parental consent or knowledge? What happened to My Body, My Choice, or, Don’t like abortion (puberty blockers), don’t have one (don’t take them) ? This is as much about the health and well being of trans kids as well woman care and birth control ( and yes abortion) is about the health and well being of other young people. For the record, I see both as needed services for our community
I have to wonder how Peggy and other organizers would have responded to their own child, had they come out as trans, enby, or GNC? Peggy, would you have told your son his life was invalid, had he told you he was a woman?
And did folks also know that many of these same GC folks who have used Planned Parenthood medical services, and donated to them for years, have now pulled their support because PP also provides transition services? Sounds again like all the calls/justification from the right for pulling all funding from PP because abortion is one of the services provided.