Michael Gove brands Ipso ruling on trans complaint ‘offensive’ to free speech

Former minister Michael Gove has criticised a ruling by the press watchdog about a magazine’s description of a transgender writer, saying the finding is “offensive” to the principle of free speech.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) concluded that a reference to Juno Dawson as “a man who claims to be a woman” in an online article in The Spectator was discriminatory.

But Mr Gove, a former Conservative MP who is now editor of the magazine, branded this “an outrageous decision, offensive to the principle of free speech and chilling in its effect on free expression”.

Ms Dawson, who has a gender recognition certificate after legally changing gender in 2018, complained to the press watchdog that she had been deliberately misgendered with the intention being to offend her.

Michael Gove, former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, is now the editor of the Spectator | Getty Images

Ipso said the use of such language in the article was “personally belittling and demeaning” towards the novelist.

The article, published in May, was headlined “The sad truth about ‘saint’ Nicola Sturgeon” and was a comment piece about the former Scottish first minister, focused largely on her stance regarding transgender rights in Scotland.

It reported that Ms Sturgeon “was interviewed by writer Juno Dawson, a man who claims to be a woman, and so the conversation naturally turned to gender”.

Ipso said the Editors’ Code protects the right to hold and express a wide range of beliefs, and the columnist was entitled to express beliefs about gender transition and biological sex, but that the code also requires the press to “avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s … gender identity”.

Ipso stated: “In the view of the committee, referring to the complainant as a man ‘claiming’ to be a woman was personally belittling and demeaning toward the complainant, in a way that was both pejorative and prejudicial of the complainant due to her gender identity, and was not justified by the columnist’s right to express his views on the broader issues of a person’s sex and gender identity given that this targeted her as an individual.”

While Ipso upheld the complaint of discrimination, it did not uphold Ms Dawson’s complaints of inaccuracy or harassment.

It said: “The committee considered that the sentence in issue was sufficiently distinguished as being the columnist’s view that the complainant remained biologically male despite the transition process she had undergone rather than being a statement of fact about the complainant’s sex or gender as recognised under the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

“For these reasons, the committee did not uphold the complaint of inaccuracy.”

Ipso required The Spectator to publish the finding online to remedy the breach of the code.

Mr Gove, in a piece published on the website, wrote: “We publish what Ipso requires of us here. But I am in no doubt this is an outrageous decision, offensive to the principle of free speech and chilling in its effect on free expression.”

He described the comment piece’s author, Gareth Roberts, as a “brilliant writer” who was “exercising his right to free speech and indeed expressing a view that many would consider a straightforward truth”.

Mr Gove said: “Dawson may have a gender recognition certificate but no piece of paper, whatever it may say, can alter biological reality.

“Parliament may pass laws, but they cannot abolish Dawson’s Y chromosome.”

The ex-education and housing secretary said society had “understandably, sought to accommodate and make changes to ensure people who wish to live as trans women, even though they were born biological males, have every opportunity to find the happiness they seek in their assumed identity”.

But he added: “Dawson cannot dictate how others think, nor decide what language others use when they describe the reality they see.”

Ending his piece, entitled “In defence of Gareth Roberts”, Mr Gove said: “We will continue to give free thinkers and brilliant writers such as Gareth Roberts a platform. And we will resist any effort to pressure them into conformity with another’s morality.”

Ms Dawson appeared to describe the ruling as a “mess”.

In a story posted to her Instagram account, with a link to the Ipso finding, she wrote: “Can a magazine call a woman a man? Well yes, but they shouldn’t? Read the whole mess!”