Ian Mayes: A change, of course

On January 31 the Guardian's Weekend magazine published the first of two articles by the lesbian feminist Julie Bindel, written in the place recently vacated by Julie Burchill. The column, under the heading "Gender benders, beware" applauded the decision by the British Columbia supreme court to overturn a ruling that the human rights of Kimberley Nixon, a male-to-female transsexual, had been violated when she was denied the opportunity to train as a counsellor of female rape victims. Ms Nixon was referred to as "she" in quotation marks. What rape victims would expect, the writer argued, was counselling from "women who have suffered similar experiences, not from a man in a dress".

The writer similarly applauded a judge's decision in Britain to reject a claim of sex discrimination brought against a pub landlord by five male-to-female transsexuals "only one of whom had disposed of his meat and two veg". She criticised the Equal Opportunities Commission for supporting the claimants and agreed with the judge, who said that while he respected their wish to be regarded as women, a person's wish (apparently quoting the judge directly) "doesn't determine what he is".

Further into the piece there was a reference to Kwik-Fit sex changes, and the injunction to "think about a world inhabited just by transsexuals. It would look like the set of Grease." The column concluded: "To go back to my five men and a toilet, I don't have a problem with men disposing of their genitals, but it does not make them women, in the same way that shoving a bit of vacuum hose down your 501s does not make you a man."

The column attracted about 200 letters, nearly all of which I have read. There was clearly an international lobby at work but this by no means accounted for all the mail. All but four or five of the letters were condemnatory of the views expressed in the column. Many of them condemned the Guardian for publishing the piece. The Guardian was also criticised for the caricature illustration used with the column - a hairy-chested tattooed figure in a dress with a badge reading "I'm a lady."

Most of the letters went directly to Weekend, which published four of them - all critical of the column - the following Saturday. Some later correspondents felt that freedom of expression had thus been reasonably exercised. One wrote, "[Julie Bindel's] diatribe about transsexuals was unbelievably insensitive, but nevertheless she had a perfect right to express her thoughts, and to suffer the resulting slings and arrows."

About a dozen letters came to me in the form of complaints. Some readers also made it clear that they were complaining to the Press Complaints Commission. The complaints were broadly that the article poured gratuitous offence on the members of a minority who already suffered discrimination and sometimes physical attack; that it showed not just a lack of sympathy but a lack of understanding of the experience of a transsexual person; that the language used by the writer tended to reinforce stereotypical views of transsexual people and thereby to encourage others to treat them with disdain or even hatred.

The editor of Weekend said: "We [run] vigorous, opinionated and provocative columns on a whole range of subjects and this is something I'm keen to continue and protect ... There are very many times that we disagree with our columnists, sometimes vociferously, but that is not the point - we are not looking for consensus.

"In this case, we thought that what Julie Bindel was writing was particularly interesting because it came from her - a lesbian activist for the rights of women and children. ... She is a rare kind of writer who puts her money where her mouth is."

Julie Bindel said that writing in a different place and at greater length the tone might have differed and the piece itself have been more analytical. "I know that lots of those wishing to go through sex change are deeply troubled and suffer discrimination." However, she would still say that was not the solution. "We have invented a solution to a problem that we still do not really understand."

Dismay at the piece was registered not only by transsexual people but by doctors, therapists, academics and others involved in the field. One therapist wrote: "Transgendered people would like to go about their lives in peace and dignity." This column, which obscured any argument in discriminatory language, would not help them to do that. It abused an already abused minority that the Guardian might have been expected to protect.

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