Drew Hutton and Libby Connors (editors)

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.

8 SEPTEMBER 2026 | 9781922964441 | Paperback | 152 × 229 mm | 328 pages