Weldon faces storm of criticism after attack on ‘frivolous’ reasons for sex changes

FAY WELDON has provoked a row after saying some transgender people are “frivolous” and change gender “for the sake of fashion or the clothes”.

Gay rights groups criticised the comments, which they said would spread myths about transgender people and make it harder for them to be accepted.

The author and playwright told Newsnight she thought some people transitioned to become female because it is easier to be a woman.

“There are lots of sort of transgender people for whom this is a really serious business, but there is also a sort of un- dertow of frivolous people who for the sake of fashion or the clothes or whatever want to be the other gender,” she said. “I’m not offending transgender people or thinking there’s anything wrong with that. The women who want to be men have a really hard time for them I think.”

Dr Jane Hamlin, president of the Beaumont Society, a national self-help group for transgender people, said the comments revealed “an all too common lack of awareness of transgender people and their lives”.

She said: “I know it is difficult for people who are not transgender to understand what it must be like to be transgender, but it is very sad that a dis- tinguished writer should parade her ignorance in this way.”

Bex Stinson, head of trans inclusion at Stonewall, said: “Trans people face social and legal discrimination, simply for being who they are and offensive remarks continue to be made.”

Weldon’s new book, Death of a She Devil, tackles the subject. In one sec- tion she writes: “Man now controls the best weapon woman ever had – the body he so envied, its very moods and subtleties … he can become her.”

The 85-year-old has said in the past that she thought feminism was bad for some women, adding that men “increasingly seem to be getting a hard deal”.