UK Edition
Transgender woman accused of 'hate speech' after wearing t-shirt stating she is still biologically male
A transgender woman facing disciplinary action over a T-shirt stating that she is still biologically a man has been accused of “hate speech”.
Debbie Hayton, a physics teacher in the Midlands, lives as a transgender women after changing her gender from male to female in 2012. But unlike many people in the trans-community, she does not believe her sex can be changed and is vocal about the fact that she will always biologically remain a man.
She is now potentially facing expulsion from the LGBT committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for wearing a top adorned with the slogan: “Trans women are men. Get over it!”
If the TUC rules against Ms Hayton, who has sat on the committee for five years, it would mean that even transgender people face being accused of transphobia for saying that they do not believe an individual can alter the sex they were assigned at birth.
Ms Hayton, 51, who has undergone surgery and hormone treatment, wore the T-shirt at an event organised by campaign group Fair Play for Women in July, and it attracted a complaint in August.
According to the Sunday Times, 12 members of the LGBT committee wrote to Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, a federation of unions representing 5.5m working Britons, saying that by wearing the T-shirt Ms Hayton had “gone beyond discourse, and the expression of alternative viewpoints, and is now propagating hate speech against the trans community”.
The case against Ms Hayton comes after fellow transgender woman Kristina Jayne Harrison told an employment tribunal in November that attempts to “legally coerce society” into treating males as females in all circumstances is “inevitably doomed to fail”.
Ms Harrison, a 54-year-old transgender woman who was born a man, gave evidence in support of Maya Forstater, a tax researcher who was dismissed from her job at a US think tank for tweeting that “trans men cannot be women”.
Ms Forstater took her former employer to a tribunal to argue that her view - known as ‘gender critical’ - should be a protected belief under the Equality Act.
But the judge this week ruled against her, concluding that her views “are not worthy of respect in a democratic society”.
Prior to last week’s decision on Ms Forstater’s case, Ms Harrison told the tribunal: “The process of having surgery or hormone treatment cannot ultimately transform your sex. Every cell in my body has male chromosomes. I have a prostate. These things cannot be completely deconstructed. It is not possible to be biologically female. But that does not mean I can’t live a fulfilling life being treated as a woman.”
Nicola Williams, founder of Fair Play for Women, said: “Accusations of transphobia are thrown at women so often for so little that the word has lost all meaning. When even trans people can get called transphobes, I hope people now understand how ludicrous and far-fetched these attacks have always been. The trans movement has been hijacked by gender extremists.”
Ms Hayton was unavailable for comment.
A TUC spokesman said: “The TUC is working with union representatives from across our elected LGBT committee to hear everyone’s perspectives and find a way forward.”