MARION Millar, the Scottish feminist campaigner accused of a hate crime, has had her first court appearance delayed again.
The 50-year-old accountant from Airdrie, who is represented by the SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC, had been due to have her initial bail hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court next Tuesday.
However the hearing, which had already been delayed from July 20, has now been postponed by a further two weeks until August 31.
Ms Millar, a supporter of sex-based rights for women who opposes transgender self-identification, is seen by her critics as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, or Terf.
She has been accused of posting allegedly homophobic and transphobic material on social media in 2019 and 2020, including a tweet showing a ribbon on the purple, white and green of the suffragette movement.
She has charged on June 3 under Section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act, which criminalises “grossly offensive” messages, with a “hate crime aggravator”.
The mother of austistic twin boys could face two years in jail if convicted.
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On June 28, Ms Cherry, who shares some of Ms Millar’s views on gender recognition, announced she had been engaged to conduct the defence.
It is understood advocate Paul Harvey will act as junior counsel alongside Ms Cherry, and that Ms Millar’s defence will involve human rights.
The case has already attracted international attention on free speech grounds.
The American legal analyst Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public interest Law at George Washington University, has called it part of a “free speech fight brewing in Scotland”.
Gender-critical feminists such as Ms Millar disagree with those LGBT activists who think gender identity should be prioritised over biological sex in government policy and the law.
The former fear the advance of transgender rights is at the expense of hard-won women’s rights, while the latter see the focus on biological sex as transphobic.
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