German Podcasters Might Face Prison or €250,000 Fine for Misgendering Trans Activist

Free speech and sanity are dying in Germany. The very idea that actually being scientifically accurate about a man's sex is prohibited is sheer insanity!

From The European Conservative

By Tamás Orbán

“How should a society function in which biological realities and legal fictions come into such blatant contradiction?” one of the hosts asked.

A German court ordered an episode of the Hoss and Hopf podcast to be deleted after a prominent transgender activist sued the hosts for calling him a “man” and using the male pronouns when referring to the activist during the show. The gag order is not the end of the saga though, as the podcasters might even face jail time or a fine of up to €250,000, the feminist news site Reduxx reported.

In the controversial episode, the hosts were discussing the case of Laura—formerly Nicolas—Holstein, who has been making headlines in Germany by abusing the law to demand access to female spaces. Recently, for instance, Holstein has been pursuing legal action against a female-only gym in Bavaria with the help of Berlin’s federal Anti-Discrimination Agency. 

Last week, the Frankfurt Regional Court ruled that the episode must be deleted from their online archive and prohibited them from ever re-publishing it under their own names or through any third parties. The court also banned the two hosts, Kiarash Hossainpour and Philip Hopf, from referring to Holstein as a man and using male pronouns to refer to Holstein in any future discussions.

In his X post, Hossainpur explained that the court used an expedited procedure without an oral hearing. “It is noteworthy that the court saw an ‘extraordinary urgency’ here—as if the use of biologically correct terms represented an immediate danger that could not be delayed,” he wrote.

“This creates a fascinating dilemma: In Germany, a person who was born biologically male and is legally considered a woman can no longer be called a man,” he went on.

This is an expression of opinion that the court classifies as a violation of personal rights and even an attack on human dignity and sanctions it in an expedited procedure.

The questions that arise are as explosive as they are uncomfortable: How should a society function in which biological realities and legal fictions come into such blatant contradiction?

Besides the obvious violation of the freedom of speech, the podcast host also raised concerns for women in general. How can the state address the legitimate discomfort of women who are forced to share female-reserved spaces (like communal showers in a gym) with self-identified women who “clearly appear male,” he asked, subtly referring to Holstein’s very visible male pattern baldness. 

The protection of women, it seems, ranks much lower than reaffirming the identity claims of trans individuals. “This legal balancing act raises more questions than it answers,” Hossainpour wrote.  “It shows the limits of a legal system that tries to squeeze complex social and biological realities into rigid categories.”

Nonetheless, the podcast hosts plan to cooperate with the authorities and ask their followers to delete all snippets from the banned episode that they might have posted on different platforms so far and to refrain from re-publishing them for the time being. 

The episode discussed Holstein’s most recent legal exploit, in which the activist successfully forced the owner of a female-only gym in the Bavarian town of Erlangen to pay compensation after refusing Holstein membership. The owner of the gym cited women’s (and especially Muslim clients’) discomfort with Holstein’s presence in the locker rooms, but the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency ruled that Holstein was owed €1000 for “personal injury.” 

Furthermore, the fact that the gym was the only one among the town’s 14 gyms that was exclusively reserved for women suggests that Holstein deliberately targets female-only spaces to gain media attention by weaponizing the country’s anti-discriminatory laws.

Holstein was also the first German ‘trans woman’ to play in a women’s football league, sharing the dressing room with women and girls. Even a separate shower schedule was created just for Holstein, following complaints from his teammates, some still minors, but Holstein was later accused of not abiding by it.

Apart from the podcasters, the media outlet NiUS has also been fined and banned from misgendering Holstein after it reported on the case while calling the activist “a man.”