Drew Hutton wants freedom from consequences

As reported in The Guardian, Drew Hutton has been expelled from the Queensland Greens, the founder and former life member has put his right to discuss our bodies, our bodily autonomy and our right to exist, above his commitment to the environment and the Greens party principles he agreed to as a member - the four pillars.

The four pillars are ecological sustainability, grassroots participatory democracy, social justice, and peace and non-violence.

Social justice
Many of the social problems we have today — crime, discrimination, disease, poverty — could be dramatically improved if we focus on eliminating extreme inequality in Australia and across the world. The Greens believe that it should be the priority of all governments to alleviate poverty and to extend opportunity to all members of society.

Despite agreeing to this principle, Drew has committed, along with some other ne'erdowells, as cissexual people, to publicly debating us. Dehumanising doesn't even start to describe it. These ne'erdowells, let's call them trans questioning? Wait, no, that's not right. Trans exclusionary? Nah, never liked the acronym shit. Gender criticals? No, you let them name themselves and they will have yet another org to earbash representatives about our existence. Let's call a spade a spade. These transphobes who littered Drew Hutton's replies, who he explicitly gave space to and fostered the discussion of, and now promotes in his defence against breaking the party rules.

You can actually see them in his facebook replies right now, lovebombing him, they cannot get enough.

Gosh that names seems familiar.

Gee, well at least she cares about the environment, right?

Beginning to think fostering right wing ideals in a social democratic party is just an angle of attack.

But the free speech is important, right?

Well, yes and no.

No one's actually stopped Drew Hutton from saying anything. Free speech decidedly not being a thing in Australia, we have an implied right to political communication, and this has been respected insofar as Drew hasn't been jailed or come under undue state oppression for his transphobic leanings. His state is actually systemically abusing trans kids in refusing them care, forcing them to go through puberties that cannot be entirely undone, and that's with parents who are supportive. Kids in transphobic households get that and the boot.

In effect, Drew is championing his state's attacks on trans people.

Drew Hutton has been extended grace by the Queensland Greens far longer than he should have been, probably because of support he has received from Greens titans.

The former lecturer of politics and history will draw on symbolically powerful support. Both Brown and the party’s second national leader, Christine Milne, oppose Hutton’s expulsion and have written to advocate that his membership be restored.

Bob Brown and Christine Milne, again, two cis people, putting their thumbs on the scales for bigotry in the Greens.

Imagine if individual trans people could get that kind of support. Well, Drew actually frames his expulsion meeting as full of "queer and transgender activists." So you see, really, we are just a tiny minority pulling the strings of society. Not drawing any allusions here at all...

Silliness aside, that one can't be supportive of trans rights and participation and the environment, we have to hold meetings and slog through his transphobic bullshit, when he very clearly is just bringing the party into disrepute. You cannot call your party a "cult" and smear it over your pet issue.

Grassroots participatory democracy
Real progress comes when enough people believe it is possible to make a difference and decide to do something about it. All Greens members and supporters are driven by the desire to work towards a better Australia. In contrast to the two old parties, which are run by executives in head office, the Greens involve members in key decisions and our campaigns are powered by thousands of ordinary people volunteering their time, skills and support.

The point of grassroots participatory democracy does not mean you get to steamroll your ideology over everyone, it means you can make a case on a particular policy, usually devised by a working group focused on that issue, led by experts in that field. Does that mean you get traction? Absolutely not. Will your opinion as a single, lone voice, opposing whatever's being proposed stop it in its tracks, of course not. The party wouldn't work if some right wing chud joined and immediately had the power to grind the party to a halt.

More to the point, these forums are laid out by each state party, my experiences in the WA Greens may be entirely different from the Queensland Greens. They certainly do not play out on social media, with an open comment section, where any old bigot searching for their next target can pop in and spew hatred, vitriol, and their favourite dog whistles. Yes, yes, women's rights are "under threat" from trans rights, but some of them transes are women, even when you look at it from a bigoted lens of misgendering, these arguments don't even survive some basic scrutiny.

Brass tacks, "free speech" has long been the battlecry of bigots wanting space for their ideology, be it race, or religion, or sexuality, or gender. That you can hold a bigotry is not enough, you need to force it upon others. Not just force it on others, they also can't do anything about it.

I don't think we need to privilege that kind of violence.