A leading transgender activist and Labour Party official is facing possible expulsion after online comments that she made about the party’s first transgender women’s officer.
Miranda Yardley, 50, who was born male and underwent gender reassignment nearly ten years ago, said she had no regrets after posting four tweets in February about Lily Madigan, 20, questioning her status as a woman.
Ms Madigan, who was born male but has identified as a woman for about four years, is the first transgender person to be elected as a women’s officer in the party. She has been at the centre of a Labour Party row over the definition of male and female and what exactly constitutes “transphobia”.
Ms Yardley, an elected LGBT officer with Labour, tweeted that “Lily Madigan is still a man” and referred to Ms Madigan as “Willy Madagain”. One tweet read: “Transmisogyny is that dreadful, covetous misogyny that transgender males like Willy Madagain so willingly show towards women. Because he hates women.”
She insisted that her comments were examples of the dictionary definition of “man” and defended the play on Ms Madigan’s name as “satire”. She added: “To state that Madigan is a man is not a personal attack, nor is it bullying. As an adult human male, he is biologically and legally a man.” She added: “I don’t have a problem with Madigan per se . . . and could see it possible for a male to act as a women’s officer. However, in order to be able to fulfil that function, the women’s officer would have to listen closely to the concerns and needs of women. Madigan has shown he is unwilling to listen to women, and revealingly that he has no empathy with women.” She claimed Ms Madigan had used “dehumanising and misogynist slurs” about feminists who do not see transgender women as female.
Labour has written to Ms Yardley about the tweets, which could be in breach of rules that forbid “hostility or prejudice based on age, disability, gender reassignment or identity”.
The row comes amid government plans to change the Gender Recognition Act to make it easier for people to self-declare their gender. Ms Madigan could not be reached for comment.
Labour said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously, which are investigated in line with our procedures.”
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