A podcast episode of Hoss and Hopf had to be deleted by court order because the moderators called a trans-identified man “a man” and used male pronouns to refer to him. The podcasters may be facing potential prison time or a fine of up to €250,000.
In the controversial podcast episode, the hosts discussed the case of Laura Holstein, formerly known as Nicolas. Holstein, a balding male who now identifies as a “woman,” has made multiple headlines over the past few months related to him demanding access to female spaces. Most recently, Holstein, with the support of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, has been pursuing legal action against a female-only gym in Bavaria.
But the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court has now stopped in to order the censorship of the Hoss and Hopf episode related to Holstein. The hosts, Kiarash Hossainpour and Philip Hopf, have also been prohibited from referring to Holstein as a man and using male pronouns for him.
In a post to social media, Hossainpour posted screenshots of the letter they received from the court. Among the orders made in the document are that the two hosts are prohibited from “distributing, publishing or having third parties distribute or publish” statements that correctly sex Holstein.
Among those statements include that Holstein is a “man who feels [he is] in the wrong body,” and that “he still has his dick.”
“Our podcast [Hoss and Hopf] was censored: Welcome to Germany. Our podcast episode about the legal drama of a person who was born biologically male but wanted to go to a women’s gym – with the support of the Independent Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination – is now offline,” he wrote.
In the court’s letter, the hosts were accused of violating Holstein’s “personal rights” by referring to him as male, because he is “legally and socially recognized as a woman.”
Hossainpour explained further: “It is noteworthy that the court saw an ‘extraordinary urgency’ here – as if the use of biologically correct terms represented an immediate danger that could not be postponed. One inevitably wonders whether other, perhaps actually urgent cases had to take a back seat for this.”
To his audience, Hossainpour posed a question about the impact of gender ideology on observable reality.
“The questions that arise are as explosive as they are uncomfortable: How should a society function in which biological realities and legal fictions come into such a blatant contradiction? What if someone who appears to be clearly male is considered a woman by legal decree and thus gains access to spaces that were traditionally reserved for women?”
In addition to being forced to delete the episode, the hosts are facing a €250,000 fine for violating the law and, if this cannot be paid, up to six months in prison. If the offense is repeated, they could be handed a two year prison sentence.
As a result of the court ruling, the Hoss and Hopf episode referring to Holstein has been deleted, and the hosts are unsure as to whether they should try to appeal in court out of fear of further censorship. The men are asking their German fans and followers to “please delete all” related content, quotes, TikTok videos, and Instagram reels.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Holstein has a long history of attempting to use his self-declared gender identity to access women’s spaces.
In June the owner of the Ladys First, a female-only gym in Bavaria, denied Holstein membership and permission to enter the women’s locker room. The owner, Doris Lange, cited women’s discomfort with Holstein’s presence, especially as a number of her clients were Muslim women who had religious prohibitions from having intimate parts of their bodies viewed by males.
Following Lange’s refusal, Holstein contacted the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency and the Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, Ferda Ataman, who demanded Lange pay Holstein €1,000 in compensation.
Just a few weeks later, Lange received a letter from Holstein’s lawyers demanding an additional €2,500 in damages because he was denied membership in her women’s fitness studio.
According to Emma Magazine, there are 14 gyms in the city of Erlangen where women and men can train together, but Lange’s fitness studio is the only one exclusively reserved for women. This has lead many to speculate that Holstein specifically targeted the female-only space rather than go to a gym where he was welcome.
As previously reported by Reduxx, a now-deleted Main Post article revealed that Holstein was the first trans-identified male to play in a women’s football league and that he is sharing the dressing room with women and girls.
Since some of the players are still minors, a shower schedule was reportedly created for him so that he does not shower with the teens.
A balding trans-identified will be allowed to play in a women's football league in Germany, months before he is set to change his legal sex to "female."
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 6, 2024
Players have been warned that they may be punished for "transphobic" remarks about Laura Holstein.https://t.co/eReYRlKBJA
However, according to pro-trans podcast Y-Kollektiv, after Holstein was accepted into the women’s soccer team by the coach, female football players complained and stated that they did not want to share the dressing room with him.
He has also been accused of not abiding by the shower schedule that was created to accommodate him which stipulated that he must shower before the females do.
This is not the first ruling by the Frankfurt regional court in favor of Holstein. German outlet NiUS has also been banned from labeling Holstein a man and referring to him using male pronounce.
In its decision, the court criticized NiUS’s coverage of Holstein’s cases, in particular targeting an article in which NiUS wrote: “[The] Government wants €1,000 fine from a women’s gym because it won’t let a man into their shower.” The court ruled that the use of male pronouns for Holstein was an “attack on human dignity.”
It is not yet known whether NiUS will appeal the court’s decision, but unlike the Hoss & Hopf podcast episode, the article is still online.