Kellie Maloney – previously Frank – the ex UKIP candidate and boxing promoter, has said Germaine Greer “should be punished” and “dragged into court” for stating that “trans women” are not women. The transgendered star of the BBC’s new transgender sitcom compared the comments to holocaust denial. 

Last week, after students attempted to bar her from speaking at Cardiff University, Mrs Greer was asked on BBC Newsnight if she understood why the transgendered might feel hurt and “discriminated against” by her comments. She replied:

“I’m not saying people should not be allowed to go through that procedure [sex-change surgery]. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t make them a woman. That happens to be my opinion, not a prohibition.”

Then this morning, on Sky News, Ms Maloney was asked what she “thought” of Greer’s comments. She replied:

“If she had said that about another section of the community – Muslim community, black community, or gay community – she would have been dragged into court and punished for that,” she replied, adding: “She should be punished for that.”

A comparable comment about the black community would be to say “I don’t think white people who identify as black are black”, or, “race is biological reality, not a social construct.”

Many people said as much after the recent cases of Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King, on both sides of the Atlantic, and as yet, no one has been “dragged” before a court for doing so.

Greer doubled down on her position in a statement given to the VictoriaLIVE show on BBC Two. The veteran feminist said:

“… I do understand that some people are born intersex and they deserve support in coming to terms with their gender but it’s not the same thing. A man who gets his d*ck chopped off is actually inflicting an extraordinary act of violence on himself.”

Following this, transgendered actress Rebecca Root, star of the BBC’s ‘Boy Meets Girl,’ the world’s first sitcom focused on a transgender love story, waded in on Greer’s comments.

She said, “I’d like to see her say that to my face,” and that the comments are the “sort of thing I’d equate with the worst of the gutter press” before also comparing them to homophobia and racism and holocaust denial.

“People have opinions about race and holocaust denial, and those opinion are not given a platform,” she said.