by Bev Jackson, spiked
Gay author John Boyne is being hounded for expressing gender-critical views.
The annual Polari Prize, the UK’s largest LGBT book award, caved in to the trans-activist mob this week. Its decision earlier this month to long-list Earth by John Boyne, who has expressed gender-critical views, prompted outrage from the enforcers of queer opinion. Boycotts from other long-listed authors and a petition drove home the message – Boyne had to go. On Monday, the organisers announced that this year’s prize will no longer go ahead.
The author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Boyne is a highly respected gay novelist, who brings his literary skill and imagination to bear on a wide range of topics. But to those who worship at the shrine of ‘lived experience’, literary skill and imagination are highly suspect – dark arts, even.
In My Brother’s Name is Jessica (2019), Boyne had the temerity to invent a trans character. After that, Boyne was persona non grata among the enforcers of queer orthodoxy. His heresy was confirmed by a gracious letter of apology to Graham Linehan in 2023 and praise for JK Rowling in 2025, in which Boyne described himself as a ‘fellow TERF’. How could such a renegade conceivably be admitted to the sacred halls of queerdom?