One of our members – Kellie-Jay Keen, more commonly known as Posie Parker – had a petition removed by Change.org on the grounds that information contained in her petition was “identified as hate speech”. The petition read: “Keep the dictionary definition of woman to mean adult human female.” This was in response to another petition calling for the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition of woman to include “transgender woman”. Change.org claims to be a politically neutral platform that believes in free speech, yet it has taken down Posie Parker’s petition and left the other one on its platform where it has attracted nearly 35,000 signatures. We have written to Change.org asking them to reinstate Posie Parker’s petition, admit that they were wrong to remove it and acknowledge that saying a woman is an adult human female is not “hate speech”.
The Free Speech Union
85 Great Portland Street
London W1W 7LT
+44 020 3920 7865