Anti-trans ‘hate bus’ touring the U.S.
Image: Image: Twitter
A bus with an anti-trans message, known as the FreeSpeechBus, is raising eyebrows on its tour of the U.S.
Currently in New York City, the bright orange bus is adorned with the message, ‘It’s biology: Boys are boys… and always will be. Girls are girls… and always will be. You can’t change sex. Respect all.”
The organisers behind the bus include the notoriously anti-LGBTI group National Organization for Marriage, and International Organization for the Family, labelled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
LGBTI advocates have called for New York City leaders to speak out against the harmful, untrue and discriminatory message the bus promotes and the violence against trans people it may encourage.
“Free speech is a constitutional right, but language has consequences,” said Jessica Stern of OutRight Action International.
“Trans youth already have an extremely high risk for violence, discrimination and suicide. Broadcasting a message that erases and denies the reality that trans and intersex youth exist is irresponsible, factually misleading, disrespectful and dangerous.
“This vehicle is part of the reason trans youth are driven to suicide.”
Intersex youth advocate Kimberly Zieselman said, “This isn’t biology—this is hatred rooted in an entirely false understanding of the human body.
“The reality is that biological sex is on a spectrum, and no amount of argument will prove otherwise.
“This bus attempts to erase the lived realities of the incredibly brave young people I work with every day who do not fit into this binary. In the same way that gender si not limited to strict male and female categories, neither is our biological sex.”
A similar anti-trans bus received pushback in Spain in recent months, and was banned in Madrid for being discriminatory and potentially inciting hate crimes.
After New York City, the bus is intended to stop in New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
