Remember when they sneered at Jordan Peterson for warning us about transgenderism and enforced speech? Now, an Irish teacher has been jailed for refusing to submit to “preferred pronoun” nonsense.
Technically, he’s been jailed for contempt of court — but that’s only because he refused to be bullied out of his job for not submitting to the Rainbow Religion.
Wilson’s Hospital School in Multyfarnham, County Westmeath, Ireland, placed Enoch Burke on paid administrative leave after he refused to refer to a male student with the pronoun “they,” the New York Post reported Tuesday.
When Peterson famously took a stand against enforced pronouns, the Establishment pooh-poohed his warnings. “I don’t think any legal expert would say using an inappropriate pronoun, while not something that respects the human rights of trans people, would ever result in a criminal conviction,” said Kyle Kirkup, a law professor with the University of Ottawa who specialises in gender identity and sexuality law.
Yeah, about that…
At the school’s request, an injunction was issued barring Burke from attempting to teach or being present on school property until the disciplinary process had been completed.
Enoch defied the injunction, according to police, and he was found sitting in an empty classroom at the school last week.
Obviously an extremist.
Judge Michael Quinn issued an order to arrest Burke on Friday after determining he had defied the order to stay away from the school. The teacher was arrested Monday and taken to court, and he told the judge he could not in good conscience comply with the injunction.
“I am a teacher and I don’t want to go to prison,” Burke said, according to the Post. “I want to be in my classroom today. That’s where I was this morning when I was arrested.”
“I’ve studied authoritarianism for a very long time – for 40 years – and they’re started by people’s attempts to control the ideological and linguistic territory” — Jordan Peterson
Although Burke bases his refusal to indulge pronoun fascism in his religious beliefs, it’s not just a religious issue.
He said it was “insanity” for him to be sent to jail for upholding his biblical beliefs.
“Transgenderism is against my Christian belief,” Burke said. “It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and of my school.”
It’s also contrary to all biological science and reason. It’s a profoundly irrational and anti-science belief. Its central argument is the weirdly dualistic claim that there is a separate entity to biological sex, called “gender”.
Like all irrational beliefs, it can only sustain itself by shutting down all discussion. Often with violence or threats of violence.
Don’t expect, though, to see transgenderism acknowledged as “violent extremism”, any time soon.
He told the court if he were to comply with the injunction and stay away from the school, he would be admitting to some sort of wrongdoing when he refused to refer to a male student as “they,” RTE reported. Burke said his conscience would not allow him to do so.
“I love my school, with its motto Res Non Verba, ‘Actions not words,’ but I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl,” he told the court, according to the Post.
Western Journal
So, why didn’t he just go along with the injunction and not turn up to his job? Because, as he says, to do so would be to admit that the school had a legitimate reason to ban him from teaching.
Refusing to indulge the enforced-speech bullying of a deluded teenager is not a legitimate reason.