A Christian journalist and mother who was threatened with arrest over a series of Tweets about transgenderism says she is willing to go to jail over her beliefs.
Caroline Farrow, a devout Catholic, was ordered by Surrey police in the United Kingdom to come in for an interview after she “misgendered” a woman’s transgender child on Twitter. That woman subsequently filed a complaint against Farrow with the police.
Farrow’s interaction with police became public last week.
Susie Green, the woman who filed the report, is a well-known transgender rights activist in the U.K. Her biological son identifies as a woman and received sex-reassignment surgery at age 16 in Thailand. Such surgery is illegal at that age in the United Kingdom.
One Tweet from Farrow read, “What she did to her own son is illegal. She mutilated him by having him castrated and rendered sterile while he was still a child.” Because of that Tweet and others like it, police investigated Farrow for violation of the Malicious Communications Act, which bans the electronic communication of a message if it is deemed a threat, indecent or grossly offensive, or if it is “false and known or believed to be false by the sender.”
Farrow writes for several Catholic publications and websites, including Catholic Universe and St. Clare Media.
“I remain prepared to go to prison over the right to state basic beliefs and truths,” Farrow wrote Tuesday on Twitter. “My family are all behind me and though it would be awful for them, my daughter knows I would do it for her freedoms.”
After several mainstream media outlets criticized the investigation, Green said she would drop the complaint.
“If I had continued my complaint then [Farrow] would have continued to have a platform to spread misinformation about what actually happened,” Green told BBC Two. “Being involved in an investigation would have meant that I couldn’t talk.”
Farrow, though, isn’t backing down.
“Every time you report me to the police, try to shut down my Twitter account or devote your entire social media output to me, you are telling me that my opinions count and are influential,” Farrow wrote. “It’s quite the compliment!”
It isn’t the first time police in the U.K. have investigated someone over transgender-centric Tweets. Another British mom, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, was interviewed after she misgendered someone on Twitter, as Christian Headlines previously reported.
Michael Foust if a freelance writer. Visit his blog, MichaelFoust.com.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Cecilie Johnsen
