Transgender activists have picketed and attacked a newspaper’s offices with smoke bombs after it printed an ad opposed to letting biological men ‘self-identify’ as women.
The activists chanted slogans, unfurled ‘Trans Women are Women!’ banners, and reportedly threw smoke bombs into Northcliffe House on Friday afternoon, filling the entrance of the London building with fumes and shutting down the street.
The building houses the offices of the right-leaning Daily Mail, which has occasionally questioned transgender ideology, and the Metro, which printed an ad arguing against legal changes which could allow biological men who identify as women into women’s changing room and rape crisis centres.
The protest is thought to have been aimed at the Metro, but ironically only online staff — a completely separate team that had nothing to do with the printed ad — were in the building at the time.
The ad urged readers to “Think about it” and “#ChooseReality” in bold letters, arguing against proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) which would allow biological men to legally declare themselves women — or “self-identify” — with no medical checks or treatment.
Last year the Conservative Party reportedly backed the plan, before the Government Equalities Office changed tack in June and insisted they would not “compromise women’s rights.”
Many women’s and feminist groups, including Fair Play for Women (FPFW), which was behind the ad, have argued the changes pose a threat to biological women.
FPFW was called “transphobic” for the ads, but insist they support “the right of transgender people to live safely and free from discrimination”.
They add that the “right of [biological] women to live safely” is also important, however, and must not come at the “expense” of transgenderism.
The Advertising Standards Authority told Pink News website earlier this month it will investigate whether the FPFW ad violates advertising standards.
A spokesman said adverts should not “contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence.”
“Particular care should be taken on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Ads should also be prepared in a socially responsible way,” they said.
“We have received a small number of complaints about the Fair Play for Women ad which we will assess carefully to establish if there are any grounds for further action.
“In judging whether those rules have been broken, the ASA takes into account the context and medium in which an ad appears, the audience that’s likely to see it and prevailing standards in society.
“Ads may contain opinions, views or ideologies that may be distasteful to some without necessarily breaking the rules.”
A government consultation on the changes to the Gender Recognition Act finished this week, making the debate in recent weeks more urgent.
UKIP London Assembly Member David Kurten criticised the proposals, arguing: “Theresa May’s government’s proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act to allow anyone to self-certify as the gender they are not is a preposterous attack on objective scientific truth.
“The aggressive promotion of transgenderism over the last five years has seen men being allowed into women’s prisons and boys allowed to share girls’ toilets, changing rooms and accommodation blocks in schools and the girl guides.”