My deleted comments from today's Times
The Times keeps deleting my posts. I have no idea why
So Ben Cohen wrote a piece in The Times today which is being absolutely destroyed in the comments. Pour a large glass of red wine and take some time to savour them. He’s getting zero support. Everyone is calling him out for his part in the horror show that LGBT rights have become in the UK.
Well, almost everyone. For some reason, I have a problem getting my comments to stick.
Here’s the text of my first attempt: “This is typically dishonest of Cohen. Pink News was successfully sued by MP Joanna Cherry, is currently being sued by another lesbian, Julie Bindel, and had to remove a piece about me when they accused me of conversion therapy because I oppose the medicalisation of gender nonconforming children. Cohen ran 42 pieces attacking JK Rowling in a single week, in what was clearly an attempt to intimidate her and any woman who might feel brave enough to speak out against the effect of gender ideology on women's rights. Cohen's disgusting rag is probably the number one reason there is a 'culture war' at all.”
It was deleted. So I posted again, removing ‘disgusting rag’ in case that was the problem.
I’ll tell the rest of the story mostly in screengrabs.
Finally, exhausted, I had one last crack at it, removing anything that could be said to be a personal attack on the author.
Please do share this with as many people as you can. Someone is obviously queasy about this information—all of it public, all of it truthful— being more widely known.
Same thing happened to my comments on a Times article celebrating gay men having a child via a surrogate mother. I provided factual information correcting errors in the piece, & also pointed out the arrogance, entitlement & misogyny of the bio dad who wrote the piece, who just happened to be a Times writer.
He'd said in the piece that he'd make sure to tell the child, a boy, to be grateful to the woman who "helped to bring him into the world" or some such lingo. I pointed out how insulting it was to say the woman who risked her own health & life to carry, grow & give birth to the child merely "helped" when she actually did pretty much everything - all the bio dad did was ejaculate into a specimen cup. I added that a boy taught to regard the woman who gave birth to him as a bit player & servant womb for hire would likely grow up with worrying attitudes towards women.
All my comments were removed. Since then, any time I try to comment on any other story, my post gets flagged as "pending approval" & disappears into the ether.
Just had a look at the "Community Guidelines" -
"12. be likely to upset, embarrass and alarm any other person;"
Loos enough to cover pretty much anything anyone is ever likely to write.