Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘I’m not remotely transphobic - I’m an ally of the community’
City MP defends views on transgender men in women-only spaces
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has insisted she is not transphobic in a revealing interview about the backlash sparked by her divisive views.
The self-professed feminist has repeatedly come under fire for her opposition to “male-bodied biological men” being allowed to identify as female to access women-only spaces such as prisons and domestic violence refuges.
She first found herself criticised by the transgender community and its supporters after liking a tweet by TV presenter Piers Morgan last year.
The outspoken journalist had taken issue with a post reminding “individuals with a cervix” to have their smear test, replying: “Do you mean women?”
Ms Duffield, Kent’s only Labour MP, liked the response, but admits she sometimes wishes she had never waded into the debate.
She told GB News: “I think I just saw all this hatred towards other women who were speaking about it, and I didn’t really open my mouth.
“I liked a man’s tweet, and, since I liked a man’s tweet, more has been written about my opinion than I had any idea about.
“I’ve very rarely spoken in my own voice about it, very rarely. I’m starting to now, but, for a whole year and a bit, the argument about me being a transphobe was framed by a man who tweeted, and I liked [the tweet].
“So, there were reams written about what a transphobe I was – what I thought, what I said – I hadn’t said or thought any of those things.
“But that is misogyny, because I hadn’t opened my own female mouth on it; I had liked a man’s tweet and all kinds of people were telling the world what I thought and what I believed.”
The long-running issue has seen Ms Duffield face calls by LGBTQ+ groups within the Labour Party for her whip to be removed.
But she maintains she is an ally of the trans community, not an enemy.
“I’m not remotely transphobic,” she said.
“I can’t imagine wanting to discriminate or hate a group of people just for who they are and how they want to live.
“I don’t talk about trans rights because I think it’s not my place to talk about trans rights. Trans people have got some great organisations and they’re very good at representing their rights.
“Trans rights are the same rights as everyone else, but what concerns me is that there is a slight conflict in some cases between trans rights and women’s rights.
“Women’s rights are why I came to Parliament, and why I’m sitting here, because women are now visible in Parliament.
“I grew up in a very strong feminist household, and what really concerns me are the rights of women to have privacy and space, and the necessity to be in women’s refuge – not shared with someone with a male body.
“I am an ally [to the trans community], in my mind. I really am. I want to be. I have trans friends, and I speak to trans people. And yes, I’m not Jewish, and I stood up for Jewish people in the anti-semitic row, but I also don’t want to get it wrong.”
Ms Duffield also spoke about
her experience as a victim of domestic violence, and how she was scared to offer an opinion to her ex-partner in case he would “just explode”.
In 2019 she gave a powerful speech to the House of Commons on the issue, during debates on the Domestic Abuse Bill.
Speaking to GB News, she said her former partner “made it very clear that it wouldn’t take much for him to snap me like a twig, really, or to properly hurt me”.
And she added: “He did take control in situations where, I mean, there are laws against it – that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
She said at first she did not realise the relationship was abusive, despite people “raising red flags”.
“I just kept doubting myself and my instincts, which I shouldn’t have done, but my friends and my mum were kind of reaffirming that actually – my instincts were right,” she said.
“Eventually I realised I just couldn’t carry on being frightened in my own home anymore.”
‘I had liked a man’s tweet and all kinds of people were telling the world what I thought and what I believed’