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Katrina Biggs's avatar

I think that in their zeal to be absolutist about the right to free speech, the Free Speech Union have become confused about what is their purview, and what isn't. In the case of Destiny Church holding loud rallies every Sunday morning for months in Cranmer Square in Christchurch, which had residences around it, the residents weren't complaining about the content of what was spoken at the rallies, but were complaining about the ongoing loud and disruptive public nuisance factor of the rallies. The FSU mis-read that, too, and stepped in to defend Destiny Church's right to free speech, which wasn't the subject of the complaints. Likewise, with Drag Queen Story Hour in libraries, the FSU has mis-read the nature of the objections and the protest, there, too. These were moral objections to drag queens' presence amongst little children, and not about what the DQs were saying. The FSU even went so far as to say that the drag queens had a right to express their "gender identity" as a part of diversity and inclusion, but I notice that the last few communications from FSU haven't mentioned that part again. I agree to the right to free speech (but find I can't be absolutist about it, irrespective of whether that stance is right or wrong), but that right doesn't automatically come with the right to behave as we want, or be where we want, when exercising that free speech right, especially not in public venues. The FSU needs to be a bit more discerning about the prime nature of complaints before stepping in to defend free speech like a bulldozer.

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Michelle Uriarau's avatar

So the question remains, who at the FSU has come out as a Drag Queen?

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