Scottish rock duo rejects ‘trans’ ideology, cancel culture

(LifeSiteNews) — Craig and Charlie Reid, known to their fans as The Proclaimers, launched a new album. The one that made them famous was “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” released in 1988. This time, the rock duo is attracting attention for an entirely different reason: They are taking aim at transgender ideology, and they are not pulling any punches.

The twin brothers made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with The Telegraph, published September 9, discussing their new album We May Offend. The Reids discussed their views on war, the “moron president of the United States,” their support for Scottish independence, and how much they hate much of the pop music these days. Despite the title of their album, there isn’t much there to offend.

But the subject of Scottish independence dovetailed into their more heterodox views — at least, for the music industry. For the first time since 1983, Craig Reid didn’t vote for the Scottish National Party, and the reason is that he was furious “that they passed a self ID bill” — that is, the 2022 Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which allowed trans-identifying men to easily legally change their gender to female.

“It’s so badly done that it inevitably led to violent men, including convicted rapists, being sent to women’s prison,” Craig stated. “For me, that’s unforgivable.” According to the twins, their opposition to trans ideology and the backlash that greets anyone who shares that position inspired the lyrics of the titular song, in which Craig sings: “Just by giving out the thoughts in your head, you may reach a point where some will wish you dead.”

Indeed, J.K. Rowling has faced a near-incessant conveyor belt of death threats, although she takes it all with savage good humor. When one trans activist recently informed her that he’d be rejoicing when she died, she replied, “While rejoicing, spare a thought for the fact that unless you’re hit by lightning or sucked into a hay baler, nobody will ever know you lived.” Rowling’s Twitter tiffs are a good reminder that the unarmed should not engage in a battle of words or wits with a world-famous author.

“There’s women, actual women, who are threatened with violence – sometimes get violence – and de-platformed because they have the temerity to say that a woman is an adult human female,” Craig told The Telegraph. “And they are shouted down by 0.5 percent in a population who are male and who think that because they put on a dress, and they put on makeup, that that makes them a female.”

“People have lost their careers over that,” Charlie added. “(Graham) Linehan was the obvious one. None of his pals stood up for him. I wouldn’t agree with everything Linehan says any more than I would do with J.K. Rowling. But you’ve got the right to stand up for science and logic. And in his case, it’s a tragedy. He lost his career for telling the truth.” Linehan, the comedian creator of Father Ted, was arrested at Heathrow Airport for his Twitter brawls with trans activists.

Above all, the Reids are disgusted by cowardice and ingratitude; Charlie cited the mad rush of Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson to emphasize their disagreement with Rowling, those “f____ bairns who Rowling made massive fortunes.” They didn’t have to agree with Rowling, Charlie allowed, but “you would have thought someone would stand up and say, ‘We live in a free country. Thank goodness we have freedom of speech. She is exercising her right to a point of view.”

As for Linehan’s arrest? “We’re getting to the stage now where people are getting scared to say what they think because people are being cancelled,” Craig said. “Because people have been prosecuted or threatened by prosecution. They’re doing that because they’re directed by politicians. They’re scared of seeming transphobic. They’re dancing to the tune, often, of self-interested interest groups.” Like the transgender lobby, for example.

“I’m not transphobic,” he emphasized. “I’m not against a man identifying as a woman, dressing as a woman. I’m not against any of that. All I’m against is saying that he actually is a woman when he’s not a woman. A lot of these folk are basically truth-phobic. They’ll deny the biological reality. Then if you insist on it, they’ll say that you are hurting their feelings. That you’re disrespecting them. But I respect reality and scientific fact, not myth.”

“It’s like the King’s new clothes, the whole way the culture’s gone,” Charlie added. “There’s the wee boy standing there saying, ‘He’s not got any clothes on.’ And there’s the masses who may well have had reasons not to point out that the King was naked, because it might affect their jobs. I’d still rather be the wee boy. Because he was telling the truth.”

Like many men of their age, the Reids are stunned by the cultural insanity that has exploded over the past few years. “It’s incredulity at a lot of what’s going on,” Craig stated. “Anybody, as they get older, maybe that (feeling) does take over. You don’t understand the way the world is now the way you did before. Maybe that’s true. But some of the stuff I see now, it’s laughable.”