2023-10-17 13:47:42
33 artists and authors are calling for the controversial publicist to be disinvited from the festival. Organizer is sticking with her.
A week before the start of the Literary Autumn in Leipzig, 33 authors and artists called for the cancellation of an event with Alice Schwarzer. Schwarzer repeatedly attracts attention through “transphobic, racist and misogynistic statements and publications,” it said in an open letter published on Tuesday. The organizers of the festival are sticking to the date, and Schwarzer reacted indignantly.
The 80-year-old journalist will present her autobiography “My Life” in the Leipzig City Library next week. Some cooperation partners had already withdrawn from the Literary Autumn because of the event. In a statement, the organizing team explained that they were aware that with Schwarzer a “controversial author who polarized through provocative, sometimes problematic statements for us” was being given a platform. Nevertheless, the achievements of a journalist who has been committed to feminism worldwide for decades are beyond question.
Schwarzer rejected the allegations. “These claims are defamatory and downright absurd,” the women’s rights activist told the German Press Agency in Cologne on Tuesday. “It is proven that I was one of the first public figures to stand up for the rights of trans people 40 years ago and to take a stand once morest the discrimination they faced at the time.”
She has never attacked transsexuals before. “What I am critical of, however, is the new trans ideology, which demands the right to change civil status from the age of 14 and to dangerous hormone treatments and operations for everyone.” It must be possible to express this opinion without being immediately excluded from public discourse. Everything else is “cancel culture in its purest form”.
Nils Kahlefendt, co-organizer of the festival, said when asked on Tuesday that the organizers were sticking to the reading. He referred to the statement in which the reasons were explained in detail. The Literary Autumn stands once morest the exclusion of discourse. Around 30 events are planned for the festival from October 23rd to 29th.
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