Green councillor cleared after calling trans critics ‘Nazis’

A Green councillor has been cleared of breaching a code of conduct by calling gender-critical people “Nazis”.

Councillor Elaine Gallagher said “extremists” had attended a Let Women Speak rally in the centre of Glasgow and linked the crowd to the murders and attempted suicides of trans people.

In a case that hinged on the definition of the term 'Nazi', a watchdog has decided it would not be appropriate to censure the elected politician for comments made about the February 2023 event.

Gender recognition reform critic Posie Parker was a speaker at the rally, which took place in the city's George Square and attracted a counter-protest in support of LGBT rights.

Gallagher, a city bailie who represents the Southside Central district, was reported to the Standards Commission over comments made at a full meeting of Glasgow City Council.

At a hearing, the panel found she had breached the provision in the Councillors’ Code of Conduct which requires local politicians to “treat others with courtesy and respect”.

However, the panel said she had “enhanced protection of freedom of expression as a politician commenting on a matter of public interest”.

The watchdog said it could not justify any restrictions on this right due to the circumstances of the case and a formal finding of a breach of the code of conduct could not be made.

Dr Lezley Stewart, chair of the hearing panel, said: “The panel found that, in her speech, Cllr Gallagher stated that some of those attending a rally in respect of women’s rights were Nazis and, as such, inferred that they had extreme far right views and subscribed to an ideology based on ideas of racial, social and biological purity.”

Following her election in 2022, Gallagher, the first openly transgender councillor elected in Glasgow, said she would “be a target” but hoped that her election would show that trans people are “not a threat”.

During her speech to fellow councillors, Gallagher said trans people were being used as a “convenient sacrifice” by “billionaire press owners and the political establishment” in a “manufactured culture war”.

Gallagher said: “When an anti-trans speaker had a rally in George Square this year, it was attended by Nazis. These are the extremists, and the result of this extremism is blighted lives, children silenced, bullied, abused in so-called conversion therapy, driven to attempt suicide, people murdered and mourned on the anniversaries of mass shootings and a day of remembrance.”

The hearing was told that it was not in dispute that she had stated that accusations made against LGBTQ+ individuals lead to threats of physical violence and death threats, and that the language used had been described as “genocidal”.

Elaine Gallagher was elected in 2022 | Alamy

It was also not disputed that Gallagher had spoken about “reactionaries, from the Thou-Shalt-Nots who rant about sodomites and their rainbow flags, to the would-be-fascists of the National Conservative movement”, saying that “this right-wing political agenda is the chief source of the ‘groomer’ rhetoric”.

In a written statement, the panel accepted that some of the remarks were about the impact of accusations about LGBTQ+ individuals, and about anti-trans sentiment in general, not about the rally or its attendees – and therefore these could not be considered discourteous or disrespectful.

And members agreed that while the debate around transgender and women’s rights is “extremely polarised”, Gallagher is entitled to express her views “in a forthright and even robust manner”, and noted that the speech was made in the context of discrimination she faces as a transgender woman.

However, members agreed that the use of the term “Nazi” for rally attendees “would have been deeply offensive and shocking” to them, “especially any identifiable from the footage available” online.

The panel said ‘Nazi’ is commonly understood to mean someone with an extremist political ideology “based on ideas or racial, social and biological purity”, and that it could have been “deeply disturbing” for members of the public to hear that Nazis had gathered in George Square.

Evidence was led to suggest that one individual who may have attended the rally had previously been barred from a UK political party for questioning the Holocaust. However, the standards panel said that claim, included in an online news report, had come from an activist’s Twitter thread. The panel said it was not satisfied that this was reliable evidence that the individual, or any followers, had been in attendance in Glasgow.

The panel said the courts have held that even where a comment amounts to a value judgement, there must exist a sufficient factual basis to support it, failing which it will be excessive. Given the “apparently reliable evidence to the effect that similar rallies organised by the same person in other cities had been attended by individuals who had displayed clear support of the Nazis or their ideology”, as well as “how open to interpretation the term ‘Nazi’ can be” and its “breadth of meaning and how it is commonly used to describe anyone with what are perceived as opposing or extreme views”, there was “sufficient factual basis” for Gallagher’s contention that the rally had been “attended by Nazis”, even if this was “entirely inaccurate”, the watchdog said.

Stewart said: “The Standards Commission, and indeed the public, expect politicians, including local councillors, to lead by example and be respectful at all times. This includes refraining from using language that inflames what is already an extremely polarised and toxic debate. The panel noted that a failure to do so only serves to lower standards of public discourse and encourage the exchange of abuse, rather than reasoned and respectful debate.”