The Times- Activist Marion Millar charged with sending homophobic and transphobic tweets

Activist Marion Millar charged with sending homophobic and transphobic tweets

A prominent feminist has been charged with a hate crime for alleged homophobic and transphobic social media posts.

Marion Millar, 50, from Airdrie, was charged under the Malicious Communications Act for tweets published in 2019 and 2020. If convicted she faces up to two years in prison.

The messages investigated by officers are understood to include a retweeted photograph of a bow of ribbons in the green, white and purple colours of the Suffragettes, tied around a tree outside the Glasgow studio where a BBC soap opera is shot.

It is one at least six tweets reported to Police Scotland. The nature of the others is unclear. Millar, who owns an accountancy business, was bailed to appear at Glasgow sheriff court on July 20.

Her supporters said that the prosecution was an attack on the rights of women to express themselves.

Pale and visibly shaken, the mother of six emerged from Coatbridge police station after an interview that lasted almost two hours. She was greeted by supporters, many of them wearing T-shirts branded “#WomenWontWheest”, a hashtag she helped to popularise.

Millar declined to speak to the small crowd but in a statement quoted the novelist Salman Rushdie: “Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn’t exist in any declaration I have ever read.” She added: “Police and politicians seem to have lost sight of this.”

Marion Calder of For Women Scotland, which campaigns for sex-based rights, said it was “incredibly disappointing” that police had chosen to press charges. “Women won’t wheesht,” Calder said. “These charges are a fundamental attack on our human rights. We still have the right to free thought and the ability to speak our minds.”

Millar has tweeted more than 4,000 times since 2013 and she has been heavily involved in debates about reforms to the Gender Recognition Act and Scotland’s Hate Crime Act, two focal points of the rancorous debate about the ease with which people can change their legal gender. Millar opposes self-identification.

The Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, who is banned from Twitter for hateful conduct, sent Millar a cake on her recent birthday and sent a message of support after her interview. Linehan’s account was closed after he was said to have tweeted “men aren’t women tho” in response to a post by the Women’s Institute wishing their transgender members a happy Pride.

Other reaction to Millar was hostile, with some posts characterising her and her supporters as trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or Terfs.

A report was made to police after a Twitter user, who was identified as a PhD student in Coventry, published a picture of a machinegun and tweeted: “Making a nice list of terfs tweeting @WomenWontWheesht because she needs target practice.” The message was removed for violating Twitter rules.

Millar was initially contacted by police at the end of April and asked to attend an interview under the Malicious Communications Act. She was told that social workers would be sent to care for her young twin boys, who are autistic, while she was questioned. Millar has claimed she has hardly been able to sleep or eat since officers opened the investigation.

Police Scotland confirmed that a 50-year-old woman had been arrested and charged in connection with online communications offences. A spokeswoman said: “She has been released on an undertaking to appear at court at a later date. A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.”