Yesterday, the disgraced actor and right-wing provocateur Laurence Fox lost a libel case at the High Court.

During an exchange on Twitter back in 2020, Fox described Crystal, a drag artist, and Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee, as “paedophiles”. As Blake said, the false accusation that gay men are paedophiles is a “trope as old as the hills”.

In the last few years, this kind of abuse has become an unfortunate and relentless part of life for many queer public figures, but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable; as the judge ruled yesterday, Fox’s remarks were “harmful, defamatory and baseless”.

Instead of admitting fault, Fox attempted to counter-sue Crystal and Blake (along with former Coronation Street actress Nicola Thorp), over tweets that described him as a racist. While the court did not rule whether this was an accurate description, it dismissed Fox’s appeal on the basis that the tweets in question were unlikely to damage his reputation. At the point you are voluntarily posting pictures of yourself in blackface, the damage is probably already done. Since the ruling, Fox has doubled down on Twitter, one minute insisting that he “actually won” and the next complaining that the court treated him unfairly.

We caught up with Crystal – a former RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star and soon-to-be host of drag design competition series Sew Fierce – to find out more about the case, what this verdict means for the queer community, and the anti-LGBTQ+ panic currently playing out in Britain.

How are you feeling after winning the case?

Crystal: Vindicated and relieved, like a huge weight has come off. I don’t think I really realised how much I was carrying around with all of this. And it’s not just a relief for myself, but for my co-claimants and co-defendants, too – we’ve been each other’s support network throughout all of this and we couldn’t have done it without each other.

Based on Laurence Fox’s Twitter output since the verdict, he doesn’t seem very contrite. Does that take the shine off it or was that to be expected?

Crystal: I don’t think what he’s doing is a smart move, because damages haven’t been awarded yet, so he’s just continuing to show that he doesn’t have any remorse or recognise any responsibility for what’s happened. But beyond that, it’s completely unsurprising because this is how he’s behaved throughout all of this. Whenever you think he’s dug himself into a hole, it turns out there’s an even deeper hole he can dig to.

It’s possible to have a successful media career in Britain while holding pretty extreme right-wing views, so it’s remarkable that he still seems to have crossed the line. I mean, where do you even go after getting fired from GB News?

Crystal: Well, I think the real story is shown in an email he had to disclose during the case, where he was describing his career downfall since everyone decided that he was a racist. He said that he was getting a lot of money for this, and that ‘it’s better to be hated and rich than hated while working at Asda.’ He admitted to being paid £250,000 a year by the Reclaim Party, essentially for saying controversial things, never backing down and painting himself as a martyr whenever he can. So maybe this is all just part of his game plan.

“Maybe we’re never going to be able to do anything about the anonymous accounts on Twitter, but if somebody with a public profile does it, we can hold them to account” – Crystal

In recent years, there’s been a big resurgence of the trope that queer people are ‘groomers’ and ‘paedophiles’ – which is partly why I think a lot of us see this case as a symbolic victory. As a public figure and drag artist how has this narrative impacted your life?

Crystal: Hugely. It’s something that only started with him calling me a paedophile, and it’s gotten worse ever since. It still flares up every now and then, from getting posted on LibsofTikTok to hit pieces in the Daily Mail or in the comments section if I write an article for Metro.

It’s disgusting, scary, and upsetting, but I don’t think I had realised how much tension our community was holding about this – I’d kind of internalised it. The response over the last two days has really shown me how symbolic this is for a lot of people. It feels like a line has been drawn that this is completely unacceptable. Maybe we’re never going to be able to do anything about the anonymous accounts on Twitter, but if somebody with a public profile does it, we can hold them to account.

Do you hope that this ruling will set a legal precedent going forward?

Crystal: I mean, he should have known better in the first place. I’m sure that precedent has already been set: you can’t call someone who isn’t a paedophile a paedophile. It’s one of the worst things you can say about someone in defamation law. This has already been established, but I guess some people need a reminder.

In terms of the wider direction of travel, do you think the anti-LGBTQ+ panic is starting to calm down at all?

Crystal: No, I think it’s getting worse. After being targeted by LibsofTiktok, I’ve had my worst year ever. It seems like there are more and more accounts with huge platforms that have the ability to really ruin someone’s day, or life, depending on how hard they go, and it’s obviously still resonating deeply with their audiences. It’s not just the far-right in this country, either: we still have ‘respectable’ newspapers printing disgusting stuff about trans people.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about the court case?

Crystal: We’ve touched on this already, but I just think this whole situation is a lesson in accountability. We need to start having conversations with our children, and particularly our sons, about how it’s OK to say ‘I got that wrong and I’m sorry.’ Being able to do that can save people a lot of time and money.

Unfortunately, Laurence Fox is yet to learn that lesson. It’s depressing to see this kind of toxic hubris and unwillingness to engage in self-reflection – which is definitely what the world needs more of. So that would be my takeaway: get your sons to practice saying sorry and not making it a shameful experience.