A British mother was kicked out of her local pub after a complaint that her T-shirt emblazoned with the dictionary definition of ‘woman’ was offensive to transgender people.
Rebekah Wershbale was “stunned” when, on a visit to the Five Clouds Tap and Bottle in Macclesfield last week, staff informed her she was barred from the pub as a result of her T-shirt slogan, which read, “Woman – noun – adult human female”.
“[A barmaid] told me that the T-shirt I was wearing was upsetting people because it was transphobic and not inclusive so I was barred,” the 34-year-old told the Daily Mail.
“What she meant was that I was somehow offending men who say they are women because my T-shirt did not include them in the definition of a woman. There aren’t even any transgender staff or patrons at the pub. It’s crackers.”
According to the Mail, the complaint was launched by a gay man named Mika Johnson, who — while drinking at the Cheshire establishment — used Twitter to post a message complaining: “When you’re trying to relax in your fave pub and there is a TERF [trans exclusionary radical feminist] wearing an anti-trans T-shirt… it’s disgusting and I’m so upset by it.”
Pub owner Tom Lewis confirmed Ms Wershbale had been ordered to leave following a complaint about her attire, but added that the mother-of-one had upset customers at the bar in the past with her views on males who “identify” as women.
Ms Wershbale described the claims as a smear, asserting that she had merely promoted a campaign by Fair Play for Women which argues proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, which would allow anyone who “self-identifies” as transgender to legally change sex, could put women’s safety at risk.
The feminist campaign group, which has published a study revealing almost half of transgender inmates housed in prisons across England and Wales were convicted of sex offences, says plans to “simplify” the sex change process, removing the need to even see a doctor, would compromise women’s privacy in previously female-only spaces.
Commenting on the row, Conservative MP David Davies said: “Terrifyingly, this insidious creep of open debate no longer being tolerated and freedom of speech being suppressed is now spreading from our university campuses to the streets of our historic market towns. It is a very sad day when a woman is barred from her pub for wearing a T-shirt that states the obvious because it might offend transgender people.”
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