Queer Theory is What Has Come Between LGBT and Free Speech I have often said that free speech and trans acceptance are always friends. After all, free speech increases understanding, which increases acceptance. Free speech has always been the friend of those who want to advance understanding and acceptance of minorities, and those who want social progress more generally. However, in recent years, some LGBT activists seem to not recognize this anymore. Incidents of LGBT activists attempting to 'deplatform' views they don't agree with seem to be increasingly common. Some veterans of the LGBT community have observed that there seems to be an increased emphasis on 'safety' at the expense of free expression in LGBT community lately, which goes against decades of LGBT history emphasizing the importance of being free to express who we are. What many of us can agree on is that, there is a very real shift happening here, and it's not a good one. So what is happening?
Let's start here. For those of us who believe in free speech, why do we believe in it? Basically, it all boils down to a belief that free speech, free discussion and debate leads us to the objective truth. This kind of thinking is indeed a core theme in the cannon of liberalism. The one thing most, if not all, branches of liberalism have in common is the belief that the discovery of the objective truth is better served by empiricism of some kind, rather than blind faith in 21
