Duo Arrested In Belgium For Holding Signs Defying Transgenderism

Standing in a town square, quietly holding a sign, two people were arrested by police Thursday in Brussels, Belgium. The offending message?

 “Children are never born in the wrong body.”

Lois McLatchie Miller, a senior legal communications officer for Alliance Defending Freedom International, and Chris Elston, a Canadian advocate for children who goes by the nickname “Billboard Chris,” said they were in police custody for several hours before having their signs confiscated. According to Elston, they were initially told they were being charged with disturbing the peace, but were eventually let go.

The arrest is just the latest instance of government attacks on political speech in European countries that once valued freedom of expression.

The Belgium Constitution claims “Freedom to demonstrate one’s opinions on all matters” is “guaranteed,” but with the caveat that “offences committed when this freedom is used may be punished.”

In a video filmed before the arrest, Elston said police told them they were violating the law but couldn’t name the law when asked which one.

“We’re now being told we’re going to get arrested,” he narrated.

Initially the two were standing in a town square with Miller holding the sign and Elston capturing video. They were having conversations with people, about gender mutilation, and a crowd surrounded them at one point. Elston said one man was harassing them, so they called police.

When police arrived, they told the two to put their signs away, Elston explained in a video filmed after his release.

“They said that we needed a permit from the mayor, and I wanted to see the law, I never did see the law,” he continued. “They said ‘Well, if you don’t take your signs down, you’ll come to the police station.’ … So they took my signs off, they put us in a police van, they took us to one police station, they then handcuffed us.”

Elston said they were taken by van to a police station, stripped down to their underwear, and searched.

“They saw that a mob was formed,” Miller said. “They saw that we were in the minority — that we were the ones that were being attacked. And instead of standing up for our rights to have those conversations about really important topics to Belgians everywhere, they instead took us away, and they let the mob go free.”

“This will not be the end of the story,” her husband Calum Miller said in a statement obtained by The Federalist after Miller and Elston were released. “No one should spend even a second in a jail cell for exercising their right to free speech. Action must be taken to ensure Belgium complies with their obligations to freedom of speech, including international sanctions against the authorities responsible for this gross human rights violation.”

“Let us not forget this case because it had a happy ending,” he added. “Rather, let us use this case to shine a spotlight on the human rights abuses occurring in the European Union and demand swift global action to ensure it never happens again.”

ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner said the arrest was befitting of “an authoritarian regime, not a democracy.”

“By censoring peaceful expression on a very important issue—the protection of children—Belgium has put its free speech crisis on display for the world,” she said in a statement.

The Trump administration has been applying pressure on European countries to stop punishing free expression. Europeans have faced criminal charges for social media posts and even for praying silently in the wrong place.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.