Author and screen writer Gareth Roberts, who has contributed to Doctor Who several times in the past, has been dropped from an upcoming Doctor Who anthology book, 'Doctor Who: The Target Storybook', following complaints regarding his transphobic views.
Roberts, who has previously written a number of Doctor Who books, as well as the television episodes 'The Shakespeare Code', 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', 'The Lodger', and 'Closing Time', was invited to contribute to the new anthology book being published by BBC Books, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House. However, when information about the book, and Roberts' contribution was leaked other writers on the project protested against his involvement, threatening to withdraw their work if he remained on the project.
With the prospect of losing several of the contributors BBC Books made the decision not to feature Roberts' work, though they would pay him for his contribution. BBC Books made it clear that the decision to remove Roberts was to avoid the book becoming 'economically unviable'.
Having been removed from the project Roberts' went online to complain about the situation, blaming tweets that he made in 2017 as the rain reason for the protest against him.
The tweets read, 'I love how trannies choose names like Munroe, Paris and Chelsea. It's never Julie or Bev is it? It's almost like a clueless gayboy's idea of a glamorous lady. But of course it's definitely not that.'
Roberts claimed that these tweets were 'cheerful vulgarity', and attempted to excuse away his use of a transphobic slur as being okay because he was gay man in the 1980's. He then went on to double down on his transphobia.
'Some have urged me to make a full, obeisant apology. Even if I was inclined to, I don’t think it would have any effect at all – for example, Helen Lewis of The New Statesman is currently being monstered for the most careful, respectful piece on this issue. I’m not bothered very much by words though I’m bothered when they distress my friends and family. But then, that’s how intimidation works. That’s why intimidators intimidate. (And I know for a fact it would be much worse for a woman in this position.)
'For the record this is my opinion on transgenderism and its ideology, with no humour or irony attached.
'I’ve rejected restrictive cultural gender stereotypes for as long as I can remember. I consider them to be very often harmful and constricting, especially for girls and women. The culture I enjoy most and the artists I like most are people who laugh at, bend and play with these roles.
'I don’t believe in gender identity. It is impossible for a person to change their biological sex. I don’t believe anybody is born in the wrong body.
'I think it’s wrong to – write a falsehood into law; compel people by law to speak words they do not believe; rewrite the law to remove women’s biological sex-based rights and protections; reinforce gender stereotypes; medicalise children who don’t conform to gender stereotypes. That’s it.
'I don’t believe my view should be protected either. People must be protected, ideas must never be. I would ask the writers who objected to my inclusion in the same book as them to reflect on that.
'My opinions on transgenderism are neither extreme nor unusual. It would be interesting to know if BBC Books/Random House would be prepared to pull from publication writing by Sharron Davies, Graham Linehan, Linda Bellos, Robert Webb, Germaine Greer, Lionel Shriver, Julie Burchill or Martina Navratilova.'
Despite only highlighting two of his past transphobic tweets in his statement Roberts has made many in the past that have used the word 'trannies', and have often insulted trans people as 'jokes'.
A spokesperson from the published has said that 'Ebury Publishing will no longer feature Gareth Roberts' work in the soon to be published Doctor Who: The Target Storybook. Comments made by the author on social media using offensive language about the transgender community have caused upset to Doctor Who fans and conflicted with our values as a publisher.'
Children's author Susie Day, one of the writers making a contribution to the anthology, complained about Roberts' involvement. She said that 'being involved felt like a tacit endorsement of his views'.
'I raised my concerns, and said if he was in, I was out. I don’t share a platform with bigots (including ones who say it’s all just bants, before restating their bigotry). I fully expected to be ditched. He’s a name in this world. I’m not. BBC Books made their decision. I'm grateful they took the opportunity to demonstrate that transphobic views have no place in the Whoniverse, both in and out of stories.' Day commented.
Many members of the Doctor Who fandom have taken to social media to support the decision to remove Roberts from the project, echoing similar sentiments to Susie Day, that transphobia has no place within the community. Unfortunately, a core group of fans of Roberts have been vocal in their siding with him, claiming that his removal is a violation of free speech.
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I love how in on sentence he says he is NOT attacking, then admits he feels that trans women/men are NOT REAL, lol. yeah dump the bum. anyone can have their beliefs, but even in America where the hateful think they should be PROTECTED from the consequences of their right to free speech, that is NOT how it works. the ONLY "Protected" speech is that of speech against the government, that the government cant try to silence you for disagreeing with them, or anything (so you cant be jailed, but it DOES NOT protect Neo-Nazi's from losing their jobs when their bosses find out, or Transphobs, TERFS etc from being shunned by those who have true compassion and understanding
ReplyDeleteSo he doubled down on the transphobia... Kewl. I suppose that is indeed easier than allowing himself to learn something.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Gareth is entitled to his own beliefs. He is not entitled to his own facts.
ReplyDelete“Grey and white matter volumes either in treatment-naïve or hormone-treated transgender women: a voxel-based morphometry study”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17563-z
Beyond XX and XY: The Extraordinary Complexity of Sex Determination
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyond-xx-and-xy-the-extraordinary-complexity-of-sex-determination/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sa-editorial-social&utm_content=&utm_term=
Funct Neurol. 2009 Jan-Mar;24(1):17-28.
Sexual differentiation of the human brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Swaab DF1, Garcia-Falgueras A.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19403051
“Are the Brains of Transgender People Different from Those of Cisgender People?”
“The Scientist”, March 2018, Shawna Williams
https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/51914/title/Are-the-Brains-of-Transgender-People-Different-from-Those-of-Cisgender-People-/
“Sex redefined”, “Nature”, 18 February 2015, Claire Ainsworth
https://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943#/spectrum