A Scottish Christian woman was arrested in Brussels on Thursday for holding a sign that said "Children are never born in the wrong body".
Lois McLatchie Miller, who works for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), was arrested and detained by Brussels police alongside Billboard Chris - a Canadian father and campaigner who is being supported by the organisation in his defence of free speech.
They were held for several hours before being released without charge. Despite not being charged or convicted of any crime, the police said that their signs would be destroyed.
Billboard Chris called their arrests "total madness", while McLatchie Miller said they were emblematic of a "free speech crisis" in Europe and further evidence that US Vice-President JD Vance was right to raise concerns in his recent Munich speech.
Addressing their "peaceful" message affirming biological reality, she told Fox News: "It's an opinion that's shared by many people across Europe, and yet the authorities came and shut down that conversation in the streets of this capital city, this heart of the European Union.
"If free speech is not accessible here in Europe's alleged home of democracy, then it's not accessible anywhere and it really does raise an alarm bell."
She added that she had not expected such "hostility" in Brussels.
"But hopefully it exposes some things that need to be exposed about the need to protect freedom of expression in Europe," she said.
Paul Coleman, ADF executive director, said the organisation was considering legal action in the wake of their arrests.
“The Belgian authorities not only failed to uphold the fundamental right to speak freely — they turned the power of the state against those who were peacefully exercising their rights at the behest of a mob,” he said. “This is the type of authoritarianism we challenge in other parts of the world, and it’s deeply disturbing to see it here in the very heart of Europe.“While we are grateful our colleague has been safely released, we are deeply concerned by her treatment at the hands of the police in Brussels.”He added, “We will not stand by while peaceful citizens are criminalized for speaking out on vital issues — especially when it’s the safety and wellbeing of children at stake."
