GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary General & Member of Parliament
25 April 2023
That Helen Zille holds colonial views on trans people is no surprise; what’s surprising is that she is not restrained by the political party she leads which has been courting the LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa for years.
On Sunday, Zille, retweeted a transphobic post demeaning British trans actress Dylan Mulvaney, and couldn’t resist stoking the prejudice with a dose of her own brand of divisive rhetoric.
The post that she retweeted aggressively misgenders and demeans by drawing attention to Mulvaney’s genitals. Mulvaney has been in the news after appearing in an advert for a popular brand of beer in the US, which right-wing Americans have found very difficult to swallow.
Using all 280 characters available to her on Twitter, Zille whined: “Is it now considered insufficiently ‘woke’ to be merely Gay? Must you be transgender to gain access to the inner sanctum of the ‘tribe’? And must you, in the process, trash and stereotype all women, eradicating the progress they have made to achieve equality over half a century?”
Zille has a large Twitter following. What she is doing is vomiting on the LGBTQIA+ community, spewing hatred and driving division. She is undermining the fundamental concept of equal rights in our Constitution.
Her adoption of the rhetoric of the US right, highlighted by a sustained attack on the notion of being “woke” has degenerated into the polarization sewer fueled by the likes of the similarly despicable Donald Trump.
Zille is entitled to her opinion, but there are Constitutional provisions to curtail freedom of expression when such expressions infringe on the rights of others, incite hatred and violence, or spread misinformation.
Zille must keep her obsessions with trans persons’ hormones and genitals to herself. If the DA doesn’t agree with her, it must censure her for inciting hatred and infringing the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community to safety and dignity.
However, this is the same DA that opposed the recently approved Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill in Parliament. Section 4 of this Bill deals with hate speech like this and makes it a criminal offence.
So if the DA also wants people to believe its opposition is not simply based on the party’s concern that it will be its own supporters who will commit offences under the new Bill, then it would also do well to not keep silent on her views.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za