Green Party Expels Member for Mocking “Fairy” Pronouns – and Gets Sued

The Green Party is being sued by a former member who was expelled from the party for mocking “fairy” pronouns – as used by people who believe they are mythical beings and ask to be referred to as ‘fae/faer’. The Telegraph has the story.

Emma Bateman, who was co-Chairman of Green Party Women, was found to have breached diversity rules by making “clearly antagonistic” comments about “fae/faer” pronouns used by people who believe they are mythical beings.

She was also condemned for using the terms “pronoun police” and “cognitive cis-connance” during a speech in Hyde Park, leading to a three-month suspension and disqualification from the women’s committee for nine months.

Bateman, 58, is suing the party for discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 after being repeatedly suspended and eventually expelled for her gender-critical views.

She claimed to have been labelled an “antisemitic, eugenicist, fascist, far-Right bigot” and warned the party’s “dogmatic” support for trans rights threatened to ruin its reputation for “following the science” on climate change.

In March 2022, Bateman was suspended for three months over a speech she made to gender-critical activists in Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park, in which she mocked those who believe “that every time someone says men are not women a person with fairy pronouns literally dies”.

She also challenged fellow members on how far they were willing to go to “prostrate” themselves to the “pronoun police”, and how much “cognitive cis-connance” they would “choke down” before they admitted “women are more than a feeling”.

Fairy pronouns are a type of modern or “neo” pronoun which can be used by people of any gender identity, including those who literally identify as mythical beings.

They are used as a substitute for traditional pronouns, meaning those using them would be referred to as fae/faer instead of she/her or he/him.

The phrase “cognitive cis-connance” is an apparent play on the term “cognitive dissonance”, incorporating the word “cis” or “cisgender”, which is used to describe people who are not trans.

In a report seen by the Telegraph, the Greens’ disciplinary committee found these comments breached party rules on “welcoming diversity”.

The committee also accused Bateman of reading out Green Party policy on trans identities “in a clearly overtly sarcastic fashion”, which “elicited boos from the audience which were not challenged”.

The report added: “This was combined with the use of clearly antagonistic phrases such as ‘fairy pronouns’, ‘pronoun police’ and ‘cis-connance’. It was felt by three [disciplinary committee] members that this was sufficient to uphold this alleged breach.

“One disciplinary committee member agreed with some aspects of the above analysis but did not feel, in his opinion that this was sufficient by itself to be called disrespectful or inconsiderate.”

Worth reading in full.