Another preening withdrawer steps up.

Last week, I withdrew my nomination from the longlist for the Polari first book prize. The awards had become mired in controversy due to the nomination of the Irish author John Boyne, best known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, for the main prize for his novel Earth. Four days before the longlist announcement, Boyne had written in the Irish Independent, celebrating JK Rowling “as a fellow terf” and saying of women who had “pilloried” her for her gender activism: “For every Commander Waterford, there’s a Serena Joy standing behind him, ready to pin a handmaiden down as her husband rapes her.”

I think such a viewpoint is abhorrent, but Boyne is free to hold whatever views he wants. What was unacceptable was a statement from the Polari prize addressing the backlash, emphasising its commitment to “support trans rights and amplify trans voices”, but defending Boyne’s inclusion on the grounds that submissions are assessed purely “on the merits of craft and content” and that “within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues”.

I immediately withdrew upon reading it, after the resignation of judge Nicola Dinan, who won the prize last year, and withdrawal of fellow longlisted author Mae Diansangu. Since then, a further judge has withdrawn and at least 16 authors across both lists have excused themselves from consideration. It was not a difficult or painful decision – I felt misled about the principles underpinning the organisation and I no longer cared to be awarded by it. 

So the principles underpinning the org include the “principle” that men can be women?

But it’s not true that men can be women. It is true that men pretending to be women are 1. an insult and 2. detrimental to women and their rights.

The prize has always been for the entire LGBTQ+ community…

But there is no such community. T is not comparable to L and G and can be a threat to them – men invading lesbian spaces and organizations for instance. Q doesn’t mean anything. + means either nothing or everything, neither of which is helpful.

The prize claims that it does “not eliminate books based on the wider views of the writer”. But a prize claiming to be a celebration of LGBTQ+ inclusion should know that the condition of trans people isn’t reducible to a debate in which people are simply holding “different positions” – they are a minority group facing unprecedented levels of harassment and political antagonism.

But “a monority group” is not automatically a group we must or should support. Nazis are a minority group. Catholic priests are a minority group. Torturers are a minority group. As for political antagonism – we are allowed to do that. We are allowed to dislike some political views or causes or organizations. It would be very odd if we weren’t. We are allowed to say that trans ideology is both wrong and harmful.

And to me, the real celebration of LGBTQ+ literature has come not from the prize, but from the community that has rallied behind the withdrawn authors. Our withdrawal has been followed by a 800-strong petition to remove Boyne from the longlist. That is not about him per se – he is obviously suffering great personal upset at this situation. It is, once again, about the stated aims of the organisation.

Oh right. We’re doing this shitty thing to him, but it’s not about him. We’re hoping he’s very miserable, so we pretend it’s obvious that he is, but it’s not about him, it’s about some much more high-minded thing that I am not allowed to specify.

We have, of course, been subjected to the usual name-calling: described as the “Trans Taliban” and “Queer Isis” by Julie Bindel; accused of being proponents of “radicalised”, “totalitarian” politics by Canadian novelist Allan Stratton.

Aw, Diddums. Won’t they let you do your ostracizing and bullying in peace? That’s so unfair.