Disciplinary proceedings against Dr Adrian Harrop began on 15th November 2021. He is a well known ‘ally’ to trans people and had a very active Twitter presence until late October 2020 when he deleted his account, claiming that he had been subjected to significant levels of abuse and harassment.
The GMC brought charges accusing him of using his Twitter account between 2018-2019 to post tweets that were offensive and/or insulting and/or inappropriate in nature. The proceedings were ‘live tweeted’ by @TribunalTweets
Those on the receiving end of Dr Harrop’s angry tweets were individuals who did not accept that men could become women on their assertion alone – or ‘bigots’ and ‘Terfs’ in Dr Harrop’s language. Five witnesses made statements setting out the impact of the doctor’s behaviour, which included ‘highly offensive language’ and 'misogynistic references to women's menstrual cycles’. One had been threatened by Dr Harrop with revelation of her private information if she did not remove herself from social media. Others found the doctor ‘joking’ about making trips to locations near where they lived.
On 30th November, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service concluded its investigation, finding that his behaviour on social media had been ‘deplorable’ and his fitness to practice was impaired. He was suspended for one month.
An interesting feature of these proceedings was Dr Harrop’s unusual choice to be interviewed in the middle of them by Vice who described his activities in this way:
A British doctor who used social media to defend trans rights could lose his job because of complaints about his posts. Dr Adrian Harrop, a GP based in Liverpool is currently going through a Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearing regarding his conduct on his Twitter account, which he dedicated to speaking up for trans lives.
Dr Harrop then appeared at an event in Liverpool on November 21st, happy to be photographed wearing a ‘Terf Repellent’ badge.
His claimed insight, regret and remorse therefore appeared to be built on rather flimsy foundations. It is difficult to characterise tweets such as this as no more than overly enthusiastic support for ‘trans rights.’
'Reality is that TERFS aren't interested in anything of the sort – they dress up their hatred and bigotry towards trans people in a veil of 'genuine concerns re ''safety'' and ''civil, intellectual debate'', but in truth it's complete nonsense. TERFS hate Trans. Simple as that.'
Moral certainty and the disinhibition effect
The behaviour examined by these proceedings is an excellent distillation of the toxic and dangerous brew generated by self righteous moral anger and the ‘disinhibition effect’ of social media.
Dr Harrop attempted to explain his actions in this way, as a gay man recognising how he had benefited from those willing to ‘stand up’ for him.
"If people hadn’t stood up for the likes of me when we were little, fighting against really intense homophobia, there’s no way we could be so open and loud and proud now. That's ultimately what I felt I was doing when I was doing this, and I tried my best to do that in the most effective and positive way possible.”
Dr Harrop admitted to many of the charges laid against him – but also claimed that he had been a victim of an ‘orchestrated’ campaign of complaints, while at the same time stating his regret at getting mixed up in arguments with vulnerable individuals.
Regardless of the moral character or intellectual worth of those he sparred with, Dr Harrop remained at all times an identifiable medical professional. When a misplaced sense of moral imperative runs alongside a general prohibition on any kind of discussion about the tension between trans and women’s rights, it is little surprise that even members of regulated professions can be driven into embarrassingly bad public behaviour.
This isn’t a ‘free speech’ issue. Dr Harrop does not have any protected rights pursuant to article 10 ECHR to threaten and insult members of the public as an identified doctor. Regulated professions are regulated for a reason; membership carries with it enhanced social and financial status as well as opportunities to have significant impact on the lives of others. All of this demands high standards of behaviour. As the tribunal found
His actions brought the profession into disrepute, undermining public confidence in the profession and the standards of conduct expected from members of the profession … Whilst Dr Harrop has a right to his views and to express them, the manner and thought processes he demonstrated raised concerns regarding the extent of his insight, and his inability to fully appreciate the wider context of his obligations as a doctor.'
There is no doubt that a quest for likes and retweets on Twitter is highly addictive and dangerous for a certain personality type. It's interesting to speculate which came first – the chicken of Dr Harrop’s misguided campaigning zeal, or the egg of a social media platform which sets up an addictive feedback loop of validation based on outrage. But it’s clear that Twitter will continue to be the graveyard of much professional ambition. Dr Harrop isn’t unique as a member of a regulated professional to let this addiction over ride his sense of proportion - and he won’t be the last.
But hopefully he can serve as a further useful warning to those who mistake Twitter for a private conversation, or think that insults and intimidation are an effective campaigning tool or a way of making change. His behaviour isn’t just a matter of individual regret – it is toxic and damaging to us all. The tensions between those who support the right of men to identity as women on their assertion alone, and those who do not, are real and serious and will require correspondingly mature and sensible discussion.
However, this seems a distant dream. Not only did Dr Harrop choose to engage with Vice’s reframing of his actions of those of a noble crusader, wrongly accused, in the middle of a hearing about his fitness to practice, that narrative was embraced again even after the Tribunal findings that his conduct was deplorable in a further article about the ‘humiliated but determined’ doctor
There thus appears to be not a hint of recognition or remorse from Dr Harrop, but rather a promise that he will continue his campaigning.
He continued: “I’m grateful that after this period of suspension, I will be able to return to what I know to be very important and meaningful work, for people who are forever overlooked and forgotten, not only by the health service, but society at large.
“There is so much I can achieve as a doctor, not only for trans people, but for the wider LGBTQ community.”
If you want to know where this kind of moral zeal may lead us, consider what happened to Kelly Michaels in the Wee Care Nursery School abuse trial that began in 1987. It didn’t matter that the allegations of the children were utterly fantastical with not a shred of hard evidence in support. What mattered was that the prosecutors and the parents really believed the children had been the victim of terrible abuse at the hands of Michaels. They knew they were right. They were on the right side of history.
So an innocent woman was sentenced to 47 years in prison. She was released after 7 when an appeal comprehensively debunked the case against her but her suffering was profound.
Hopefully Dr Harrop wont end up getting anyone sentenced to 47 years for being a transphobic bigot, but the force that has driven him, and still appears to be driving him, is exactly the kind of mindless zeal that saw Kelly Michaels convicted. What after all do facts and evidence matter when you just know you are on the right side of history?
Sadly I suspect we will be seeing Dr Harrop at another MPTS hearing in the years to come. Or if not Dr Harrop, another professional driven mad by the potent combination of social media and a deep burning sense of their own righteous fury. There really has to be a better way to deal with contentious and serious social issues.
What can we learn? That psychos with anger and misogyny issues shouldn't be doctors.