The organiser of a lesbian speed-dating event is at the centre of a bitter transphobia storm after she specified that only “adult human females” could attend.
It comes off the back of outrage expressed by attendees of the weekly £15 per person event after trans women tried to join in.
Town planner Jenny Watson, who runs the nights in Bloomsbury, posted the ground rules on her website.
She wrote: “If you are male, please refrain from coming to the events, you are not a lesbian.”
She told the Mail on Sunday: “Last year, a person turned up sporting a purple latex outfit… and an erection.
“Another time, a trans woman came into the female toilet and pushed their body at a woman who was upset and told me after. It got me thinking that this isn’t fair on women.”
The 31-year-old continued: “Transgender individuals deserve respect. But there is a need for protection of sex-segregated spaces for lesbian women.”
Activists reported Jenny to her employers – a London council – for being transphobic. They said her social media post, requesting that only “adult human females” can attend, was evidence of her bigotry.
They also said her claim that “lesbians don’t have penises” was also transphobic.
The Stonegate Group, who own the College Arms, where the event is held, held an inquiry into the speed-dating meeting last night.
Gender rows aren’t exclusive to the UK, however. The Miss Italy beauty pageant has become a battleground for a furious transgender debate.
Organisers were planning to ban transwomen from entering the pageant sparking outrage in some quarters.
The decision was met with a novel protest, as out of nowhere 100 transgender men entered the competition.
The new rules stipulated that only people born female could enter the pageant. In response 100 transgender men signed up for the competition, citing the fact that they were assigned female at birth as a reason they should be admitted.
Activist Federico Barbarossa was one of those who entered the competition, using what trans activists call a “deadname” – the one parents gave at birth.
Speaking to the MailOnline, the activist said: “They would never think that a trans person might even aspire to win a beauty pageant, because we’re seen as this kind of, like, three-headed monster, and I think a part of it is that so many people have never seen trans women or trans men or trans people in general.”
Last month Rikkie Valerie Kolle became the first transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands.
