When Ötzi, the Copper Age European whose remains were discovered in the Alps decades ago, was identified as male by forensic anthropologists, it highlighted the certainty of biological sex. But perhaps those experts should have been put in jail — at least if we consider the experience of Emanuel Brünisholz, a Swiss wind-instrument repairman who has been jailed for his online comments.
Brünisholz from Burgdorf in the canton of Bern responded to a December 2022 post by Swiss National Councillor Andreas Glarner with the statement: “If you excavate LGBTQI people after 200 years, you will only find men and women among the skeletons; everything else is a mental illness that was fostered by the curriculum!”
The comment, which stressed the immutability of biological sex, triggered complaints from activists who accused him of inciting hatred under Article 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code. Brünisholz was questioned by police in August 2023 and later found guilty of “publicly belittling” LGBT(QI) people.
He received a suspended sentence of 2,500 Swiss francs, plus a 500-franc fine and 800 francs in court fees. Declaring that he would not pay for expressing what he called a scientific fact, Brünisholz stated: “It’s happening. On December 2 I’m going to prison for 10 days!”
Brünisholz filed no appeal against the verdict because his lawyer described it as “hopeless.” The court ruled that he had “publicly denigrated the LGBT(Q)I group of people, on the basis of their sexual orientation, in a manner that violates human dignity.”
In a statement published on Substack, Brünisholz wrote: “I am fully prepared to go to prison if that is what it takes to expose the absurdity and authoritarianism of the trans ideology that has now taken root in Switzerland. I intend to face it with good humour; I will not let myself be bent or broken by those who hope to silence me through pressure or intimidation.”
He added: “The LGBTQ+ movement behaves like a zealous sect. They try to brand me a homophobe to shut me up. I am nothing of the sort. I repair wind instruments for a living, and I come from a left-wing, tolerant household. What troubles me is watching activists in that movement exploit ordinary LGB people for political ends that strike me as dangerous nonsense.”
