August 11, 2019 – The U.S. Transhumanist Party / Transhuman Party is dedicated to fostering an environment of mutual understanding, acceptance, openness, and kindness – one conducive to enabling science and technology to help all human beings actualize themselves and live dignified lives.

Therefore, it is saddening to announce that it has come to our attention that a person within our community, someone who calls himself a Transhumanist, has publicly attacked, in a very vicious manner, our Party members, for no reason, and without provocation.

Eray Ozkural, in both public posts on Facebook and in private messages, has harassed and severely insulted members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party and respected transhumanists within our community.

The U.S. Transhumanist Party publicly condemns this behavior as unacceptable, lacking in civility, and not befitting of any human being, let alone one who has been engaged in higher learning for the majority of his life.

Indeed, what is most disappointing about the behavior Eray Ozkural has demonstrated, is that not only does he call himself a Transhumanist, but he holds a PhD degree and is a member of the artificial intelligence community.

Therefore, we are shocked and saddened that Dr. Ozkural would act in this manner. The brutish manner in which our Party members were attacked left the community dazed and confused, and we would like to make clear that such actions will receive a swift response from us. We will not tolerate this sort of behavior, and will respond whenever we feel our members and values are being threatened.

It is a precarious time for our movement. On the one hand, recent unfair and unwarranted negative press coverage has left many of us reeling from unsubstantiated allegations. Additionally, many in the general public do not understand our movement and what we stand for. On the other hand, we have garnered more members and more support than ever, and the hard work that is being conducted by Transhumanist scientists, engineers, and artists is receiving more recognition. As Transhumanism gains in popularity and more press coverage is dedicated to it, the forces that wish to stop or slow down this movement will come out of the woodwork in larger numbers. Forces that wish to prevent human beings from fully actualizing themselves, to prevent people from obtaining morphological freedom, and, yes, to prevent people from living dignified lives, will stop at nothing.

Therefore, we must remember that negative publicity damages our organization, our community, and our cause, and that we should not be doing our detractors’ work for them by disparaging or attacking our own. What is needed now, more than ever, is rational behavior, dedication to our goals, and the desire to help those who may not be able to help themselves, those who do not have a voice.

Let us remember that as Transhumanists, the goals we hold dear are of the most noble kind. Indeed, advocating for extending human life, curing disease, alleviating poverty, and allowing every human being to live a dignified life means we are tasked with the most important of duties. Let us not tarnish our movement with toxic behavior, narcissism, and cruelty. This is an opportunity for everyone within the movement to set aside differences and coalesce so that we can work on our shared goals. Therefore, we should be attacking disease, aging and poverty, not each other. Let us remember that, as we embark on the rest of the 21^st century, one that will likely result in more rapid change than the last several centuries combined.