Councillor calls in police after former mayor calls her a him
A SEX-SWAP councillor has reported a political opponent to the police – alleging that he “misgendered” her.
Tory Zoe Kirk-Robinson accused Labour councillor Guy Harkin of a hate crime after he called her “him” at a meeting.
She claims Mr Harkin, 69, a former mayor of Bolton, repeatedly referred to her as “he” and “him” instead of “she” and “her.”
Ms Kirk-Robinson, a prominent gay rights campaigner and a “Hate Crime Ambassador”, tweeted that Mr Harkin “repeatedly misgendered me in tonight’s council meeting while going off on a personal attack”.
In further tweets she added: “I had hoped Bolton’s leading political group wasn’t transphobic. I will be calling on Bolton Labour Group to denounce his behaviour.
“Bolton does transphobia.”
Ms Kirk-Robinson, a writer, artist, filmmaker and game developer, switched genders not welcome from male to female more than ten years ago. She went on: “This obviously was a shock and not a pleasant one.
“Bolton has a problem with hate crime. For Councillor Harkin to engage in a personal attack against me serves to legitimise transphobia in the eyes of the average bigot – which makes life harder for all LGBT people.”
She added in a video blog: “It hurt. The guy had no reasons to suggest I was male, he never met me before I transitioned.”
Mr Harkin said the mistake was a “slip of the tongue” that he was unaware of until it was pointed out next day and it only happened a couple of times.
He added: “I offered to apologise immediately. There is not a homophobic, or any kind of phobic, bone in my body.”
Ms Kirk-Robinson added: “The incident is now out of my hands. I always urge people to report hate crime.”