Emanuel Brunisholz was convicted of violating an anti-discrimination law after pointing out the differences between men and women
A man in Switzerland is facing jail after refusing to pay a fine for a comment courts have ruled discriminates against the LGBTQ community after a three-year legal battle.
Emanuel Brunisholz, a Swiss wind instrument repairman, was convicted under the country’s anti-discrimination laws for an old Facebook comment.
In 2022, he pointed out that the biological differences between men and women are obvious by their skeletal structure.
“If you dig up LGBTQI people after 200 years, you’ll only find men and women based on their skeletons. Everything else is a mental illness promoted through the curriculum,” he wrote on Facebook.
The post was reported to police, and Brunisholz was questioned a few months later. He was found guilty of discrimination and incitement to hatred by a court in Bern.
He appealed the decision in regional court in 2023 but was again found guilty and racked up 600 Swiss francs ($753) in court fees.
The court issued a fine of 500 Swiss francs in lieu of a ten-day jail term but Brunisholz refused to pay the fine and accepted incarceration instead, posting his summons on X earlier this month. He is to begin serving his sentence on December 2.
The case has caused outrage online and caught the eye of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“For that, he’s going to jail,” a user tagged Bonchie wrote on X on Saturday, referring to Brunisholz’s post.
The tech mogul has long spoken out against “the woke mind virus,” arguing it figuratively “killed” his son Xavier, who is transgender. Musk has also repeatedly spoken out about the curtailment of freedom of speech and government overreach in Europe.
