Labour peer resigns from party amid transphobia accusations
● Lord Moonie accused of leaving young transwoman ‘frightened and distressed’
A Scottish peer has quit the Labour Party after allegations oft rans phobia were made against him.
Lord Lewis Moonie, who represented Kirkcaldy as an MP for 18 years, said he had left the Labour Party, to “save them the trouble” of expelling him.
He was facing ad iscip linary hearing about a number of“tr ans phobic incidents ”, which included sharing an image which supported violence against transwomen.
Yesterday Aimee Challenor, ayoungtransw oman, said she had also rep or ted Lord Moonie after he had left her “frightened and distressed” when he commented on a Facebook post which used her image.
A doctor and psychiatrist, Lord Mo onie had written a comment on Facebook, under a post about transwomen asking for pregnancy and smear tests. In it he said: “How the f *** do you do a smear test on a penis? On second thoughts I’m willing to try.”
Lord Moonie said last night: “The comment I made was in response to the general statement and was nothing to do with Challenor.”
The 72- year-old also retweeted a Twitter image of a car bump er sticker which sug - gested that if a transwoman was found in women’ stoilets along with that person’s daughter, then the next toilet they “were gonna need” would be the disabled one. Announcing his resignation from the party, Lord Moo ni es aid :“I was accused of transphobia by the usual suspects, and told I must attend a disciplinary hearing.
“My membership suspended too. Not really up to fighting it so I’ve saved them the trouble.”
He has said single-sex spaces such as toilet sand changing areas, protected under the Equality Act 2010, should be not be open to people who “self-identify” as women and has said women could be vulnerable to attack if single-sex spaces are not protected.
Yesterday 21-year-old Challenor, said that she had complained to the Labour Party in February about Lord Moonie’s comment which was“unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature” and that she had been given a personal alarm from Victim Support as a result of her distress.
She added: “This was more than a transgender row, it was about inappropriate comments towards young transgender women. No 21-yearold... should have a 72-year-old Lord talk about their genitals.
“It is disappointing a peer of the realm can evade justice like this, he should be kicked out from the House of Lords.”
Lord Moonie, who also served as a Labour councillor in Fife in the early 1980s, has said that while “transpeople have the same rights as anyone else... they don’t have the right to force me to believe they acquire the sex they aspire to.”
COMMENT
“Transpeople have the same rights as anyone else... they don’t have the right to force me to believe they acquire the sex they aspire to”
LORD MOONIE