A Conservative town councillor in Wiltshire has been cleared of any wrongdoing over comments he made about the gender debate. A Wiltshire Council official found that Bobby Seymour’s comments constituted “robust disagreement about policies or political ideas”, rather than unlawful discrimination. The comments followed a proposal by Liberal Democrat councillor Aitch King, who identifies as queer and non-binary, to introduce a gender-neutral alternative to the titles Honorary Freeman and Honorary Freewoman. Seymour said the proposal would “waste time and money”, described the discussion as “utterly crackers”, and accused Liberal Democrats of being “too busy chatting about cancelling traditions with this bizarre obsession that human beings can be anything other than male or female”. He also said: “The extreme left has shown that its priorities are to impose its own gender-obsessed ideology.” A complaint alleged that Seymour’s references to “gender-obsessed ideology”, a “bizarre obsession” and “utterly crackers” were “transphobic, derogatory and dismissive”, and amounted to unlawful discrimination. The complaint also claimed the comments had “caused hurt and concern”, damaged councillors’ working relationships and brought Calne Town Council into disrepute. Councillor King has said they “disagree with the decision” to clear Seymour. At the Free Speech Union, we see countless cases in which people who express gender-critical views are punished, silenced and targeted because of their lawful beliefs. Gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010 — a position reaffirmed by last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling. Enough is enough. Read more 👇