“There is no ‘right’ to have your own biological child, or to use a poor, desperate woman’s body to carry that child. Narcissistic, rich, racist, entitled pricks”
Julie Bindel, who writes for the Guardian, and New Statesman has hit out at gay men who use surrogacy to have their own, biological child. The columnist was commenting on an April Fool’s Joke about surrogacy by German LGBT+ website Queer.de.
The article, which has been apologised for, was a competition to give away an egg donation and to pay for the services of a surrogate mother in Bangkok worth €36,000.
Bindel has often spoken out about gay men using surrogate mothers in order to have children. In her latest social media outburst, she appeared to call gay men “Narcissistic, rich, racist, entitled pricks”.
She wrote on Twitter
“Those of us aware of the human rights abuses involved in surrogacy, or rather womb trafficking, will be very well aware that this so-called April Fools’ Day joke happens in real life, & the attitude is prevalent among gay men who consider it their right 2 use the inside of those women’s bodies for their own inconvenience. There is no ‘right’ to have your own biological child, or to use a poor, desperate woman’s body to carry that child. Narcissistic, rich, racist, entitled pricks:” She then linked to the April Fool’s article by Queer.de.
Those of us aware of the human rights abuses involved in surrogacy, or rather womb trafficking, will be very well aware that this so-called April Fools’ Day joke happens in real life, & the attitude is prevalent among gay men who consider it their right 2 use the inside of those
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 2, 2018
women’s bodies for their own inconvenience. There is no ‘right’ to have your own biological child, or to use a poor, desperate woman’s body to carry that child. Narcissistic, rich, racist, entitled pricks: https://t.co/dLXBZ7OI59
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 2, 2018
When Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black announced their baby news, Bindel reiterated her stance, saying, “No-one has the ‘right’ to their own biological child. And renting the womb of a desperate women to fulfil a selfish desire is a human rights violation. Surrogacy is the interface between extreme capitalism and patriarchy.”
However, Bindel’s comments have been blasted as “hate speech” and bigotted.
Sam Everingham from Families Through Surrogacy criticised the journalist saying,
“Activist Julie Bindel should be ashamed at the hate speech she has ejected onto Twitter. Ms Bindel has attended a Families Through Surrogacy conference in the UK, so has surely heard both UK and US surrogates speak about their altruistic motives for nurturing a child for a couple who otherwise can’t carry one. Thousands of gay men around the world have embraced the opportunity to create a longed for family of their own via surrogacy and the majority of these have done so in a respectful, carefully planned manner, often establishing ongoing friendships with their surrogate and her family.
“No, there is no ‘right’ to have your own biological child, but when educated, empowered women in countries like the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Greece and Eastern Europe make informed decisions to carry a baby for a childless couple, bigots such as Ms Bindel have no right to label them ‘poor, desperate women’.
“The bans on surrogacy for foreigners in Thailand, India, Cambodia and Nepal in recent years seems to have completely escaped Ms Bindel’s notice. Wake up and smell the flowers!”
THEGAYUK.com reached out to Julie Bindel for comment.
UPDATE since publishing: Bindel claims not to have received the email sent – and told THEGAYUK.com to “fuck off”.
