In The Minds Of Transphobes, Any Opposition Is “Fringe”

On 11/23/2021, Joanna Williams of The Telegram had an article published titled “Trans activists aim to make women fearful of speaking openly about gender. And they’re succeeding.” The article is a very typical recounting of certain events were anti-transgender women have had to deal with harassment over their opinions. She repeats the obviously ridiculous notion that Rowling was doxxed (her house has a Wikipedia page and is a common tourist sight in Scotland and you can find pictures all across the internet dating back years of people — mostly fans of hers — outside her house with no attempt to conceal where they are) before noting:

A hardcore fringe of trans activists are waging a scurrilous campaign of intimidation and abuse designed to frighten women into submission. They want to silence critics and will, it seems, stop at nothing to make women shut up. Rarely has free speech been so explicitly threatened.

Notice how the “hardcore fringe” qualifier does not exist in the headline. The headline simply argues it’s “trans activists” while the article adds the qualifier that it is only “a hardcore fringe of trans activists.” However, just as it raises the question of who exactly is part of this “hardcore fringe,” it is also raises the serious question of who is not.