Tory MP accuses Labour MP Stella Creasy of being ‘drunk’ for saying a woman can have a penis

British Labour MP Stella Creasy (L) has said JK Rowling’s views on trans people are ‘wrong’. (Getty Images)

British Labour MP Stella Creasy defiantly stood her ground as a Tory MP Mark Jenkinson asked if she was “drunk” for saying JK Rowling’s views on trans people are “wrong”.

The Walthamstow MP sat down with The Telegraph to discuss when she was threatened with gang rape at university – only for the newspaper to ask how she defines the word woman.

“Do I think women were born with penises? Yes,” Creasy said in the interview published Friday (27 May). “But they are now women and I respect that.”

Asked if her feminist views at all align with the Harry Potter author, Creasy said: “No, I don’t agree with her and I’m told I am a bad feminist because I take a different view.

“JK Rowling doesn’t support self-identification whereas I do. Of course, biological sex is real – it’s just not the end of the conversation.”

Rowling has, among other things, wrongly linked being trans with mental illness, offered her “big love” to an anti-LGBTQ+ activist and enjoyed a boozy brunch with anti-trans campaigners while thousands protested against trans conversion therapy in London.

“I am somebody who would say that a trans woman is an adult human female,” Creasy continued. “I would say that you and I were adult human females.

“As an old fashioned feminist, I’m still fighting the patriarchy. I’m not interested in fighting amongst ourselves.

“And one of the things that happens to trans women is that they are oppressed because the patriarchy goes: ‘Oh well you’re a woman, right that’s it, let’s pick you apart.’

Stella Creasy. (Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)

“So it’s right for me to stand with my trans sisters and say: ‘Let’s fight these battles together.’”

Creasy decried the current gender recognition law that requires a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and for a person to have lived their gender for two years for a trans person to legally change their gender.

“I wear flat shoes, I’ve got terrible bunions, is someone going to tell me that living as a woman means you have to wear high feels for two years?” she said.

These invasive and time-consuming requirements could have been scrapped in favour of self-ID – but the Conservative government tossed out plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act altogether.

“Do I want to live in a world where we’re policing everyone who goes into a toilet? No,” she added.

Conservative Mark Jenkinson, MP for Workington, accused Creasy of being “drunk” and “angry all the time” in a series of tweets ridiculing her views. 

Jenkinson, a former UK Independence Party (UKIP) politician, faulted Creasy for going against “science” as he shared her interview on Twitter.

Creasy was not amused. “Subtweeting isn’t science,” she replied, adding: “Be an actual adult male rather than a troll.”

“Taking a pushchair with a baby up in an escalator is silly,” Jenkinson replied. “Sharing a link to an article, less so.”

After Creasy criticised Jenkinson’s bizarre and “out of touch” remark, Jenkinson said: “You’re very angry all the time, aren’t you? Are we talking about the women with the penises or the ones without?”

“You are trying to police how I travel with my child Mark Jenkinson while claiming to advocate for womens’ rights,” Creasy hit back. “And calling me ‘angry’ and then implying I must have a penis to challenge you. All while hiding behind Twitter.

“It’s a great look for the Conservatives… really.”

“Are you drunk?” Jenkinson – an elected official – said.

“This is bizarre. This guy is actually a Conservative MP not a Rosie Holt style parody,” Creasy replied. “As this thread shows he clearly has an issue with women and now he’s gone for an oldie but goodie.

“How can you legislate on online harms when legislators themselves act like trolls?”

As much as Jenkinson, who tweeted Monday that “trans women are not women” and referred to trans people as “madness”, did not agree with Creasy, Twitter users did.

Many thanked the lawmaker for stepping up against anti-trans figureheads at a time when transphobic hate crimes are spiralling and the government takes aim at their rights.