Over the Rainbow (Paperback)

Why have liberal democracies with proud traditions of democracy and free speech become obsessed with hate speech laws and are anxious about offending citizens’ feelings? Is the issue of trans rights simply a matter of being kind to a minority group who already have the same rights as everyone else? The writers and editors in Over the Rainbow examine how concerns about the welfare of a small minority have been turned into an ideology that challenges the rights of women, lesbians, and gay men, as well as gaining control of many of the institutions of our society. Even biology and science itself are under threat. A new set of ‘facts’ about sex and gender swept across the English-speaking world and Europe over the past decade disrupting Green and left parties’ long-standing commitments to the rights of women. Over the Rainbow brings together writers in the fields of community services, therapy and medicine, politics and theory, workplace and sporting culture, the arts and law to explore the stultifying impact that dogmatic adherence to trans ideology has had on everyday life and culture. Together they articulate the underpinning theory and philosophy of gender ideology as well as to explain how these ideas were applied within organisations to override free speech and shut down dissent. This new dogma has embedded itself across the English-speaking world and this book includes writers from the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia to illustrate its rigidity and negative impacts on civic culture. Free speech and civil society organisations have been essential to the success of representative democracy. The writers in this book hope to contribute to a re-opening of civic discourse.

Libby Connors was a member of the Queensland and Australian Greens for over 30 years. She has been active in non-violence, anti-racism, civil liberties and environmental causes for over four decades during which time she co-authored A History of the Australian Environment Movement with her partner Drew Hutton. She is an historian with a PhD from the University of Queensland but is now happily retired from academia. Drew Hutton is a co-founder of the Queensland Greens and the Australian Greens and was the president of the Lock the Gate Alliance. He was expelled from the Queensland Greens in 2025 for supporting free speech but took the party to court and his membership was reinstated. He has a long record of activism and of writing about peace and non-violence, civil liberties and the environment.