Literary autumn
Trouble over Alice Schwarzer’s appearance in Leipzig
For some, a “polarizing author”: Alice Schwarzer. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
33 authors and artists are calling for the cancellation of an event with Alice Schwarzer in Leipzig. The background is her statements about trans people. The women’s rights activist herself reacts outraged.
A week before the start of the Literary Autumn in Leipzig, 33 authors and artists have announced that an event has been canceled Alice Schwarzer demanded. Schwarzer repeatedly attracts attention through “transphobic, racist and misogynistic statements and publications,” it said in an open letter that the artists published on Tuesday. “That’s why we’re calling on the Literary Autumn not to give Alice Schwarzer a platform for her problematic statements and to remove the event from the program.”
According to the organizers, Schwarzer 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 Some cooperation partners had already withdrawn from the Literary Autumn because of the event. At the beginning of October, the organizers announced that they were aware that Schwarzer was a “controversial author who polarized through provocative, sometimes problematic statements for us.” Nevertheless, the achievements of a journalist who has been committed to feminism worldwide for decades are beyond question.
Schwarzer: “Defamatory and downright absurd”
Alice 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 against 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”.