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Original poster

Frank Maloney - Gender Reassignment

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CKDexterHaven · 10/08/2014 18:35

Lived over 60 years with full male privileges - Check
Rose to the top of a male-dominated profession - Check
Right-wing political candidate for UKIP - Check
Homophobic public comments - Check
Believes in family values and traditional morality - Check
Believes in a 'female brain' (like people used to believe in a 'negro brain' and a 'Jewish brain') - Check

Nasty radical feminists are meant to be the reactionary ones but, to me, it is the transactivist movement that is conservative, homophobic and longs for the days when homosexuality was criminalised and men were men and women were women.

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MNHQ

SarahMumsnet · 14/08/2014 14:03

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all your reports on this thread, and sorry it's taken us a while to respond; it's obviously an emotive issue, and we've been having a thorough read.

The main thrust of the reports has been about our failure to delete posts which refer to Kellie Maloney as Frank, or that use the pronoun "he" rather than "she". Those of you who read our post on transphobia in July of this year will know that we decided not to come up with a list of deletable transgressions - and tbh, the decision was taken in anticipation of just such circumstances as these, where context seems to us to be critical. After careful thought, therefore, we've decided that we don't think deleting would be the right thing to do in this instance. Our reasoning was as follows:

  1. While we obviously support anyone's right to request that others refer to them by whatever name and pronoun they choose, and we think it's courteous to do just that, in this case we're talking about a well-known public figure whom many of us have been used to referring to as "he" for several decades. To expect everyone to make the change immediately, without slip ups, seems unreasonable; in many cases, the use of the "wrong" pronoun will be inadvertent.

  2. Furthermore, in the case of Kellie Maloney, we have on public record a series of remarks that she's made over the years focusing on gender and sexuality in what might best be described as a rigid way - many of which were made in the political arena. It seems fair to us, therefore, that Mumsnetters might very reasonably want to discuss the specific issues that her reassignment throw up, and to question the matters of identity and gender that are raised - which is precisely what's happened here.

Therefore, while we'd ask that everyone remember that there are real people with real emotions involved here and to show them the respect online that they'd accord them face to face, we think that in the case of this thread, blanket deleting of "he" would make a nonsense of what has, for the most part, been a thoughtful debate. We will of course look at specific posts that have been reported, and do shout if you see anything that you feel is out of line.

Thanks for your patience, all Flowers

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