Suffragette Emmeline ‘would have fought for trans rights’

SUFFRAGETTE leader Emmeline Pankhurst would have been a supporter of transgender rights, according to her great-granddaughter.

Dr Helen Pankhurst said Miss Pankhurst, right, would have backed ‘transgender women’, born male, who have suffered prejudice.

She made the controversial comment when British Labour party activist Lisa Dempster asked her: ‘What would your grandmother think about the discrimination towards trans women?’

Dr Pankhurst replied: ‘The suffragettes came from all different backgrounds and defied rigid ideas about who or what a woman could be.

‘I can’t be certain what my greatgrandmother would have thought, but I hope that she would have been supportive.’ But her remarks – which came just days before the 100th anniversary of women being granted the vote following a long campaign by the suffragettes – enraged feminists, who say that transgender women are not female. Responding to Dr Pankhurst’s comments, renowned feminist writer Julie Bindel said: ‘Trans people deserve dignity, protection from bigotry and discrimination, but they are not women. ‘They haven’t been raised as girls and they haven’t gone through the oppression and violence all females have to face as a result of their biology.’