Dutch radio spot against trans bill criticised
Poster campaign from the Dutch organisation Gender Doubt. A radio commercial from the same collective was criticised by the Advertisement Code Committee. Photo Martin Droog
Western Europe
The Dutch Advertisement Code Committee has criticised the radio advert about gender transition. It’s mainly the tone that is wrong: condescending and dismissive.
The radio spot comes from the collective Gender Doubt (“Gendertwijfel”) and concerns the bill before the Lower House. In this, the government proposes to make legal gender change easier and to lower the age to do this without parental consent. In the radio commercial, the Parliament is called to “stop the Transgender Act”.
According to a report in the Dutch newspaper NRC, the commercial is “needlessly offensive to (young) transgender people”. That is what the Advertising Code Committee (RCC) concluded after a complaint by Women Inc. and Transgender Netwerk Nederland, two organisations working for the emancipation of women and transgender people.
In the spot by Gender Doubt, a collective of opinion makers and organisations campaigning against loosening the Transgender Act, an emotional voice can be heard speaking out against changing gender in the birth certificate. “As a mother, I am against the Transgender Act,” says the voice. “My daughter can register as male, our son as female. This can be done even under the age of 16. Surely gender is not a choice! Lower House, stop the Transgender Act.”
Offensive
According to the complaining organisations, the commercial violated four articles of the Advertising Code: it would be contrary to the public interest, damage confidence in advertising, misleading and be needlessly offensive.
The RCC rejects the first three grounds but agrees with the last: needlessly offensive. “Because of the wording ‘as a mother’, ‘my daughter’ and ‘my son’, the radio commercial clearly suggests that it is about a mother talking about her child. In reality, however, it is about a vulnerable group of people, namely (young) transgenders”, the RCC ruled. “In doing so, while it is clear that the woman is expressing her own opinion, she does so in a tone that cannot be summarised in any other way than mocking, indignant, condescending and dismissive.”
The advice from the RCC to other media is not to broadcast this commercial again, but this is not binding.
Appeal
Directors of WOMEN Inc. and Transgender Network Netherlands are pleased with the ruling.
Gender Doubt has announced to appeal against the decision, according to Reformatorisch Dagblad.
The Lower House started the debate about the Gender Change Act in September already. But since some of the four coalition parties seem to be in doubt, the debate is placed on hold. The expectation is that the Parliament will continue the debate on June 5th. The bill was already tabled by the previous government in 2019.
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