Not content with banning football fan Linzi Smith for the ‘crime’ of expressing gender critical views, Newcastle United Football Club is now trying to intimidate her into silence.
FSU member Linzi is a lifelong NUFC supporter and an advocate for LGB rights. In 2024, she was banned from the club’s stadium and subjected to a covert investigation by the Premier League – all because she believes that biological sex is immutable, real, and important in policy and law.
Since launching her crowdfunder with our help, Linzi has received an outpouring of public support and is already nearly a third of the way towards her target.
But there’s been a deeply troubling development in her case.
NUFC has now accused her of “deliberate obfuscation” and “misrepresentation” in her crowdfunding campaign, claiming it is “fundamentally wrong and misleading” to say she was banned and subjected to a sinister private investigation because she believes that “biological sex is important and real.”
“To be unequivocally clear,” the Premiership club writes in an adjective-laced passage that wouldn’t look out of place in a trans activist’s personal diary, “the reason for your client’s ban remains the three tweets that are now the very subject of her claim, one of which makes an exceptionally offensive, abhorrent and intolerable comparison with Nazism.”
But Linzi’s posts reflect her gender critical beliefs, including concern about the real-world effects of gender ideology: the erosion of women’s single-sex sport, and the irreversible consequences for children and adolescents subjected to an “affirmative” approach to gender distress. Yes, some of her tweets were clumsy, unsophisticated and poorly worded. But so what? Not everyone can phrase things like Kathleen Stock – nor should they have to. More importantly, these beliefs are protected in law, as the FSU’s legal team makes clear in her pre-action letter.
Far from trying to mislead, Linzi has been scrupulously transparent. She’s now published that letter in full so supporters can judge for themselves – you can read it here.
In a particularly vindictive move, NUFC ends its letter by suggesting it will ask the court to force Linzi to pay its legal costs if she loses. All the more reason, then, to contribute to her crowdfunder.
What’s at stake here is not just one football fan’s right to attend matches, but the broader principle that individuals should be free to express lawful, protected beliefs without facing institutional retribution.
Please consider donating to her crowdfunder – the link is here.
