Swiss man chooses jail over fine for "transphobic" post

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.