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Barbara Lindsay was an inspirational Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat activist who sadly died in 2024. This is her last article.
Recent conversations on language have reminded me of the ‘Overton Window’ characteristics of the shifts in the language used by GC (gender critical – believers in biological reality) people. (For anyone not familiar with this, the concept was devised by American policy analyst Joseph Overton.) The width of the window encompasses the breadth of acceptable opinion within a group, or society at large. As its activist members promote an aim and seek to push the majority towards its adoption, the limit of the window may shift. Ideas that may initially seem eccentric or extreme are made mainstream by repetition and debate until a position is reached when they are widely accepted.
Gay rights benefited as the window shifted
LGB rights campaigns were a good positive example of this process. Within the ‘window’, the acceptance of LGB people and their lifestyles became normalised by the majority even though some still opposed same-sex marriage, while agreeing with Civil Partnerships. As gay marriage became law, objectors could simply decide not to attend one, while others were free to choose differently. With no need for conflict resolution between those with different views within the
Overton Window, the focus remained on the principle of equality for LGB people; this was accepted by the majority and gay marriage was achieved.
Following on from this, with remarkable speed, we saw the window shift further as Stonewall adopted the ‘T’ and became captured by trans activists, while the dangerous ideology of Mermaids was uncritically adopted across the media until the point was reached when it seemed that every employee was being expected to add pronouns to their signatures. Some of the original founders of Stonewall abandoned that organisation and were faced with the prospect of having to start a new support charity for the LGB community. Thus, the LGB Alliance came into being.
Compelled pronouns – a move too far
At the LGB Alliance October conference two or three years ago, Julia Long asked the panel a question about whether GC people should accept and use forms of words dictated by transgender campaigners, such as preferred pronouns and the imposition of the concept of ‘cis’. As the microphone was passed around the panel, each one said that not only would they not accept compelled speech from trans activists, they also wouldn’t accept it from GC feminists either. In short, they would continue to use whatever language they deemed appropriate. We need to bear in mind that GC campaigners are at risk of attack from trans lobbyists often resulting in social media bans or shadow banning and from trans complaints of ‘transphobia’ to their employers and/or regulatory bodies. Since then, I am glad to say that the Overton Window has definitely shifted, with much wider acknowledgment that the use of pronouns like she/her for males is bad for women and our cause. We have also seen a marked reduction in the parroting of nonsense phrases like ‘trans women are women’ by political leaders. The recent court cases won by GC supporters clearly help to shift the Overton Window towards freer speech and the goals of GC requested policy achievements.
There are other examples of the Overton Window being pushed too far and damaging a cause it is supposed to help. Our towns need to be more pedestrian and cycle friendly and local councillors may achieve public support for some cycle lanes and wider pavements, but when schemes cause increased congestion and pollution, there can be a backlash, as we have seen following the recent introduction of ‘low traffic neighbourhoods’ in London. Good intentions should not fail through overambition – trying to go too far, too fast.
In politics, good judgment is key
Personally, I like to be at the forward edge of the ‘window’, trying to persuade others that choice of language really matters. I despair of trans activists who claim to ‘feel unsafe’ for spurious reasons, while women got stuck with ‘feeling uncomfortable’ when we mean ‘unsafe’.
Also, I reject the claims that ‘Trans Rights Activists’ (TRAs) are being denied human rights, as they already have all the human rights everyone else has and the crimes of voyeurism and indecent exposure still exist. Also still in existence are safeguarding laws and rules for the protection of children and women in vulnerable situations where safety, privacy, and dignity are, or are likely to be, issues. Extreme ‘TRAs’ would be better described as ‘TDAs’, Trans Demands Activists. However, our GC Overton Window has not shifted sufficiently along its axis for our leaders to be brave enough to adopt that change of language yet. We need organisations like Sex Matters and brave individuals like Kellie-Jay Keen and Joanne Rowling to shine a spotlight on ‘demands not rights’ issues, so that we can all regain the use of correct, accurate language and be clearly understood without the fear of being cancelled or otherwise harmed.
