April 28, 2016

Social justice hysteria recently erupted at the University of Toronto, as a transgender student running for Student Union Vice President of University Affairs was “misgendered” by Andy Edem, his her opponent during a debate. Shawn – now Cassandra – Williams, was referred to as a “he” – the appropriate pronoun given his her XY chromosomes.

The debate is available in its entirety here on YouTube. The pernicious parley begins at the 2 hour 26 minute mark.

In a nutshell, Edem referred to his self-avowed female opponent with a male pronoun – the cardinal sin of the social justice acolytes. If you actually listen to the debate, it’s no mystery how such a blunder could have transpired. Williams’ voice is so deep, it’d give Morgan Freeman a run for his money.

Williams felt the need to immediately point this out and Edem subsequently apologized, stating, “First of all I have to make an apology to you, I’m really sorry. I try as much as possible to use appropriate pronouns or the pronoun that somebody actually prefers, but we’re all human and sometimes we make slip-ups and this is one, so I thank you for calling that out.”

Evidently, Edem’s apology was insufficient for William’s emotional exigencies. Immediately following the debate, he took to Twitter, expressing his dissatisfaction with the level of coddling from the university and his peers.

Accordingly, Edem’s political party, 1UofT, issued a long, formal apology that reads like a blog post from Salon.

Our team has no desire to sweep this matter under the rug, something which we feel is incredibly harmful. Since the debate, our team has engaged in open and honest conversations internally about the impacts of misgendering, internalization of gender norms and the gender binary, and the realities of violence faced by trans* members of our communities. Our team takes these issues very seriously and by way of community accountability want to share that we are engaged in a collective discussion to challenge our assumptions and collectively unlearn.

1UofT does not support transphobia, trans* misogyny or trans* misogynoir. We recognize that transphobia and other forms of oppression continue to exist in intersecting ways on campus and in the community. We recognize that trans* women, and in particular black trans* women and two-spirited people, experience disproportionate levels of violence in our community. We are committed to challenging transphobia, trans* misogyny and trans* misogynoir; and to challenging heteropatriarchal assumptions and attitudes that continue to persist in all aspects of our lives.

Of course, this was also inadequate for Williams, to whom being denied the right to define objective reality for others was so emotionally damming, it’d left him bereft of clemency. Shackled by the restrictive character limit on Twitter, Williams instead took to Facebook, where he posted a 1500 word rant berating Andy’s mendacious misgendering.

I have to speak about this now because it’s ridiculous. More than a fuck-up, the past few days indicate a complete lack of perspective from 1UofT and their executive candidates. Andy misgendered me, and then couldn’t even properly apologise for it. Their entire slate applauded Andy after misgendering me and (not really) apologizing, and apparently none of them (not even Malkeet, their VP Equity candidate) thought for even a moment that this might be problematic. After the debate, none of them thought to reach out to me, or to anyone else, and it seems like it never occurred to any of them that they ought to write a statement until I told them that they ought to write one. The statement that they eventually produced, which I reviewed, completely missed the point (do none of them, not even Malkeet, their VP Equity candidate, understand what they did… and what they didn’t do?), and I had to point out to them various ways that their statement missed the point, which people would have rightly criticized them for. And even after all of this, they still couldn’t produce a statement showing a genuine regret or a willingness to be accountable.

I think that this is information people should have available to them when they reflect on what they have experienced during campaign week and when they reflect on who they want representing them on the UTSU executive.

Adding insult to injury, the university’s student newspaper ran a story suggesting Eden ought to have avoided this gaffe, given Williams’ pre-debate statement encapsulating his preferred pronouns.

This incident glaringly highlights the fascist fancies of the progressive left on college campuses. Dissenting opinions or points of view aren’t just unwelcome for open debate, they’re bullied into silence in the name of social justice. It’s not enough for you to merely apologize for describing a man who thinks he’s a woman as a man. You must be crucified on a cross of tolerance for the crime of independent thought, refusing to de facto self-lobotomize via participation in mainstream delusion.

Follow Harry Khachatrian on Twitter.

Also available on The Daily Wire