by Nancy McDermott, Genspect
The Orwellian report provokes a push back in the UK
Just as Americans were settling back into their routines after the 250th anniversary celebrations, something extraordinary occurred in the UK. The human rights organization Amnesty International’s British “section”, Amnesty International UK, published a report entitled A Growing Threat: The Anti-Rights Movement in the UK.
If the linguistic formulation “Anti-Rights” feels Orwellian, it is. The report, which included a list of 117 organizations that are supposedly part of an “anti-rights ecosystem,” turns reality on its head by characterizing organizations defending established rights as “anti-rights”. These “anti-rights” include freedom of speech, single sex spaces, and, in the case of religious organizations, holding an orthodox Christian position on sex, gender, and abortion.
Fifty-one of the organizations listed (Genspect, Sex Matters, For Women, Scotland, LGB Alliance, etc.) were called out for visibly opposing the rights and equality of women and LGBT+ people. JK Rowling’s Beira’s Place, a female-only center for victims of sexual assault, was highlighted for its “anti-rights” approach because it restricts access based on biological sex.
And that was when things got interesting.