FRIGID FESTIVAL (NYC Fringe) strikes a blow for INTELLECTUAL COWARDICE
FRIGID has cancelled my show, POEMS ON GENDER
This is the show they cancelled. Check it out for yourself…
TEXT here: Kindle and book version
VIDEO here: Poems on Gender
I think this is a life and death issue, and it is driving a wedge into the revolutionary movement at a time when unity against the rise of fascism is desperately needed. There are bad actors involved on both sides of this question, but this is not a difference of opinion between ‘nice’ people and bigots. The fact is, this is a debate that is going on between reasonable people of good faith. It’s exactly the kind of debate that Fringe festivals should be platforming.
Pretending that everyone who disagrees about gender identity is a bigoted purveyor of hate speech just gives you an excuse not to think. It is mental laziness and INTELLECTUAL COWARDICE.
Here is a link toFRIGID’S press release, as published in Broadway World: PRESS RELEASE
Below is the cancellation correspondence
between FRIGID Festival and Me (David Lee Morgan)
I've copied & repasted it in chronological order from the emails, but I haven't changed a word.
FRIGID:
We have some concerns about your press blurb. The statement "There are two sexes, male and female" reads as a strong anti-trans bias regardless of your overall intent. There is a dog whistle in this short and complete sentence that you may or may not have realized. It is not a statement we are willing to put in our own press release.
Speaking purely from a marketing standpoint, it would kill any interest in your show here in NYC, it won't be considered controversial in any way, it will just not be considered. A lot of our audience will read that sentence, disengage from your blurb, and just move on to the next show.
Please send an updated blurb as soon as you can so we can get our press release out in the next few days.
ME:
Are you planning on censoring my show too, or just the press release?
There are two sexes, male and female
It takes one of each to make a baby
But what this means – what we make of it
Has changed more times than we can imagine
There is nothing anti-trans about these lines. It is accurate science (glad to provide references), a basic statement of second wave feminism, and it is at the centre of my show.
FRIGID:
that is a good question, we are currently deliberating the subject. with trans people being shot at so much at the moment we are considering not making our platform available to the kind of message you are peddling.
ME:
If you are going to decide to censor the Fringe festival around this issue, you might as well inform yourself accurately about “the kind of message I’m peddling". The text is available on Amazon. The kindle version costs one dollar.
FRIGID:
I've watched some of your videos on YouTube. I am not hearing anything I hadn't heard before, from some very good friends, I must say. I think it's very gracious that you continuously concede that it is ok to be trans. What I have a problem with is that you only really accept it when it requires no medical intervention unless all the "better" options have been exhausted and nothing is left to do but hormones, and/or surgery.
I understand there is much more nuance in your 40 minutes. But today trans people are being literally hunted in this country, while our screens are full of idolized people that had work done to look the way they think they should. Just so they can get up in the morning, look themselves in the mirror, and like the rest of us, go on about whatever their work is.
I would fight for your speech to be legal, along with the Nazis and the God people, whose speech is much more damaging than yours. but I fight too hard every day, creating this platform, to lend it to this nonsense at this moment in time.
I'm calling an audible. We will stop using the term uncensored, and will offer anyone that wants out of the festival on that basis, a refund.
We will send out a press release this week announcing that we are redefining our terms. I urge you to consider redefining your terms as well.
ME:
Not sure why you’re putting “better” in quotes. Cross-sex hormones and surgical interventions have long term effects. There’s a reason why Finland, Sweden and most recently the NHS in the UK have rejected the “affirmative care” approach, and have rejected even the use of puberty blockers before age 18, except possibly in rare cases as part of an experimental program.
To quote from the text of my show…
The body is the foundation
When the body dies, the music stops
Physical transition comes with a lifelong cost
So of course you would try to avoid it
Not at any price
But that’s where you would start
How could you not understand this
I’m very glad to hear that you have heard what I’m saying (in whatever videos of mine that you watched) from some of your own ‘very good friends’. Not sure why that should justify cancelling my show. There are bad actors involved on both sides of this question, but this is not a difference of opinion between ‘nice’ people and bigots. The fact is, this is a debate that is going on between reasonable people of good faith. It’s exactly the kind of debate that Fringe festivals should be platforming.
I’m glad that you consider my ‘nonsense’ to be much less damaging than the Nazis. As far as your urging me to consider redefining my terms, I assure you that I have considered and reconsidered everything about this show. I have read everything that my trans activist friends have recommended and gone on to read more: books, essays, scientific studies and analyses of the studies. I have spent two years writing and rewriting these poems. I think this is a life and death issue, and it is driving a wedge into the revolutionary movement at a time when unity against the rise of fascism is desperately needed.
On a practical note, I’m not clear on exactly what you are saying vis a vis my show. This is my best guess:
You are cancelling my show and will refund the deposits I have made.
You will send out a press release this week announcing that from now on Frigid will censor any shows it considers to be damaging nonsense (or whatever), and will offer refunds to any other shows who want to withdraw because of this.
Please correct me if I am wrong about the above details.
I would urge you to read the entire text of my show before taking this fairly drastic step. I can’t send a kindle version to another country, but if you want to read it – and have qualms about contributing pennies to a corporate behemoth and/or to me – I will send you the word files of the text.
Finally, I’d like to offer a compromise. Cut the number of my shows back from 6 to 3 and give me a 90 minute time slot, 40 minutes for me and 50 minutes for an open debate, chaired by anyone of your choice. Just to be clear, I am not voluntarily cancelling my show and will not consider changing a word of any of the poems, but I am open to any possibility of a principled discussion.
FRIGID:
the fact that you don't understand why "better" is in quotes is the root of our problem.
There are so many things we do as individuals and as a society that come at a lifelong cost.
For anyone to be crusading for this one particular issue at this particular point in time, is either pathological, or a cynical attempt at courting conflict for notoriety. I had my doubts about this decision, but those are gone now.
The bottom line is that I will have to work too hard to find staff to work your offensive show, It will be an undo burden on our operation, it will have a negative effect on the other shows, and it will cross the threshold past a reasonable accommodation.
we are still wording the press release, but the gist is that starting now and going forward we will no longer call our festival uncensored. We reserve the right to pull a show if we feel it crosses the line, and that the line moves, so we are not going to define a line in our press release or in our systems.
I understand that you prefer to live in a world of clearly defined lines, with everyone on their side of the line, but we don't define lines here, we just know they have been crossed when it happens.
we will process a refund of both your application fee and participation fee.
and we will offer any show that wants to drop the festival because of this change in policy, a full refund.
How do they know if a line has been crossed if it is not defined? Basically people who feel they have to kow-tow to the woke mob have had their brains frozen by fear. And does this person actually believe that trans people are being 'literally hunted'? What does that even mean?
Sickening.