Iceland has abandoned free speech

A gay-rights activist faces new charges for thoughtcrime.

It sometimes feels as though the woke movement has finally been derailed, and the world is gradually tottering back towards sanity. We’ve had the Cass Review, the recent Supreme Court ruling that sex cannot be changed with a certificate, Trump’s executive orders to uphold women’s sex-based rights, and various sporting bodies banning men from participating in women’s sports.

And yet a few strongholds are persisting with their regressive notions, most notably Canada and Australia. But Iceland might also be one of the worst offenders. The Icelandic gay rights activist Eldur Smári Kristinsson now faces a third set of charges and faces two years in prison. His crime? Well, take a look for yourself.

This is one of seven social media posts – all of which are similarly critical of gender identity ideology and the harm it poses to children – that have resulted in him being charged for ‘hate speech’ under Article 233 of the Icelandic Criminal Code.

Eldur was reported by the National Queer Association of Iceland, the country’s equivalent of Stonewall. In the UK, Stonewall’s misrepresentation of equality law has meant that companies and quangos are rapidly severing all ties. In Iceland, there has been no such progress.

The lawyer Dennis Noel Kavanagh has outlined the implications of Eldur’s case:

‘This has the appearance of a state backed harassment campaign against a gay man exercising free speech. Eldur now faces a third set of charges for exercising speech that would be perfectly lawful in the UK. This looks like a concerted attempt to wear him down, and I’ve seen enough criminal cases in my time to know what a war of attrition approach to charging looks like. If you did this in the UK, I would be seeking a Judicial Review of these unjust and trumped up charges. I would also argue the entire prosecution is an abuse of process, a legal doctrine we have to stop the state abusing its power to land people in court.’

Unfortunately, in Iceland there are no such protections. It doesn’t seem to matter that Eldur’s concerns about the dangers of men taking domperidone to stimulate lactation is shared by many others. Even the manufacturer has admitted that there could be ‘possible side effects to a baby’s heart’ and that it ‘should be used during breastfeeding only if your physician considers this clearly necessary’.

While some may baulk at the accusation of paedophilia in Eldur’s tweet, it is difficult to see images of breastfeeding men and not reach the conclusion that, at the very least, a fetish is being prioritised over the wellbeing of the babies. It is hardly a radical position to conclude that this is a form of child abuse.

This practice of men inducing milk through chemicals in order to play at mother has been endorsed enthusiastically by gender ideologues. You might recall the shocking case of the research team of sociologists who, in July 2023, produced new recommendations to change NHS guidelines. Specifically, they argued that mothers who identified as male should continue to take testosterone during pregnancy because their sense of gender identity ought to be prioritised over ‘normal foetal outcomes’.

It sounds deranged, but the sense of trauma that a trans-identified male might feel at not being treated as a mother is apparently more important than potential birth defects. What this research team called ‘offspring-focused treatment approaches’ are, according to them, a form of transphobia. None of the authors of these recommendations had any medical qualifications, and yet had received funding by the British taxpayer. You can read more about this astonishing story here.

And you may remember when the BBC interviewed Kate Luxion, a research fellow at University College London and a ‘lactation consultant trainee’ who claimed that drug-induced milk was ‘at least, if not higher, quality’ than breast milk from mothers. Such is the power of this ideology that the interviewer did not dare to raise a challenge.

Eldur was not similarly cowed, and is now paying the price for it. Even if Eldur’s concerns weren’t entirely reasonable – which they are – there is no justification for him to be charged with a criminal offence. Iceland prides itself on its tradition of free expression, but that matters little when it comes to this new form of heresy.

You can read more about Eldur’s case and donate to his legal fund here.

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