Campaigners urge festival to ban Dame Jenni from speaking
ORGANISERS OF a literature festival faced calls to ban Dame Jenni Murray from speaking amid accusations of transphobia.
BBC presenter Dame Jenni, a journalist known for presenting Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, was due to speak at Leeds Lit Festival yesterday.
An open letter signed by TransLeeds, Non-binary Leeds, Yorkshire Mesmac and 13 other groups, said Dame Jenni was ‘an active transphobe’ and that ‘there is no debate as to whether trans women are women’.
Dame Jenni has questioned the idea that transgender women are ‘real women’. She previously said she is ‘not anti-trans’.
The author, who was born in Barnsley, was due to appear at Leeds Library to talk about her book, A History of the World in 21 Women.
The open letter to The Leeds Library and Leeds Lit Festival reads: “Jenni Murray is clearly hostile towards the trans community, but especially towards transgender women. This isn’t feminism. It is misogyny. This is not free speech or radical discussion. Far from it.
“It is hate speech against a vulnerable minority that in the last year alone has been the subject of a hateful campaign by the British media, both nationally and locally here in Leeds.”
Former University of Hull student Dame Jenni became embroiled in a row about transphobia after she wrote a piece in the Sunday Times Magazine which questioned whether things like make-up, clothes and a sex change allow people who are born male to claim womanhood.
She has previously pulled out of a talk at Oxford University after students objected.
Carl Hutton, chairman of Leeds Lit Fest steering group, said: “The Library took the decision to invite her after careful consideration and it is a decision both the Leeds Library and Leeds Lit Fest stand by.
“When Jenni Murray was invited, we were aware that the invitation would not be welcomed by everyone.
“However both The Leeds Library and Leeds Lit Fest seek to promote discussion on issues, to open up rather than close down debate. Inviting someone to speak at the Leeds Library does not mean that the Library or Leeds Lit Fest agree with or endorse their views.
“But it does mean we believe they have a right to be heard.”