Suffragette Emmeline ‘would have fought for trans rights’
SUFFRAGETTE leader Emmeline Pankhurst would probably have been a supporter of transgender rights, according to her great-granddaughter.
Dr Helen Pankhurst suggested Miss Pankhurst, right, would have backed ‘transgender women’, born male, who suffered prejudice.
She made the controversial comment when Labour 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 she would have been supportive.’ But her remarks – which came just days before the 100th anniversary of women being granted the vote – enraged feminists, who say that transgender women are not female. Last week The Mail on Sunday revealed that a battle was raging in the Labour Party between transgender activists and feminists over trans women being selected for femaleonly parliamentary shortlists. Responding to Dr Pankhurst’s comments, campaigner 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.’