Greens fight over trans rights and free speech | The Saturday Paper

Bob Brown calls Drew Hutton a hero and an icon, the “driving force” behind the establishment of the Greens.

Over decades, Hutton worked to build a movement, first as co-founder of the Queensland Greens, then with Brown in the formation of the national party. Later he worked to unite conservationists and farmers against fossil fuel miners in the Lock the Gate Alliance.

In July 2023 the Greens’ Constitution and Arbitration Committee suspended his membership, following complaints about Facebook posts on how the party was dealing with trans rights.

It was determined that Hutton would remain suspended until he deleted the offending posts. The adjudication included a long list of comments – none of them written by him but rather written in response to his original post – that he was required to remove.

“I refused to delete the comments on free speech grounds,” Hutton says, “saying that free speech was a key article of Greens policy.”

So ensued a long stand-off as he fought the decision through internal processes.

“I kept it all within the Greens. I didn’t go public or anything as I argued my case with them. All by email,” he tells The Saturday Paper.

“I pointed out … that if I had actually been expelled rather than suspended, I could have appealed my expulsion to state council, which would, according to the constitution, need to hold a meeting within three months to discuss it.”

Now Hutton’s patience is exhausted.

“I’ve told them that I’m sick of this. It has been 18 months that this has been going on, and it could go on forever. And so, I said, I’m going to make public statements about this unless my membership is restored. And it hasn’t been restored, and I’m making a statement to you.”

Hutton’s original Facebook post, on June 21, 2022, did not take sides on the issue of trans rights – the conflict between supporters of the trans community and gender critical or trans-exclusionary feminists.

The post read: “I believe in full human rights for trans people at the same time as supporting the right of women to be safe from patriarchal oppression.”

Hutton went on to decry “authoritarian and anti-democratic” disciplinary action that had been taken against feminists for voicing their views within party forums.

In a lengthy follow-up post two days later, he was more specific, referring to events earlier that month that saw the newly elected convenor of the Victorian Greens, Linda Gale, ousted from the role amid infighting over her views on trans issues.

Two-and-a-half years ago, when he made his fateful Facebook post, Drew Hutton didn’t know Gale. He didn’t know much about the war between the feminists and the trans activists.

“I’m a retired, old, burned-out greenie activist, and I hadn’t been keeping up with all this stuff,” he says. “I just responded to what I thought was a really stupid situation and an abuse of power by some people.”

Hutton says he’s thoroughly across the issue now, and determined to fight on against those he sees as determined to “purge” the party of people who do not share their view of what constitutes transphobia.

[Ed: Great to see Drew finally speaking out. My own battle with the Greens over this issue is recorded here for those interested.]

Source: Greens fight over trans rights and free speech | The Saturday Paper