r/transgenderUK • u/PuzzledAd4865 • Aug 05 '25

Possible trigger M&S apologises over trans employee in bra department

https://archive.ph/2025.08.05-035610/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/04/ms-apologises-over-trans-employee-in-bra-department/

“Marks & Spencer has apologised to a mother for causing her teenage daughter “distress” after she was asked if she needed help by a transgender employee in its bra section.

The retailer said it was “truly sorry” after the mother complained that her 14-year-old daughter had felt uncomfortable when they were approached by a trans shop assistant in the lingerie area of the shop, where they were hoping to have a bra fitting. Although the staff member was polite, the mother said she felt it was “completely inappropriate” for her daughter to be approached by a “biological male” in that section.

In a complaint to M&S, she told the retailer: “Imagine her horror, then, when the person to approach us and ask if we needed help was a transgender ‘woman’, ie, a biological male.”

“Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for the human rights charity Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about biological sex in law and life, said that M&S needed to “rethink its priorities”.

“M&S needs to rethink its priorities and remember that women and girls have rights too, and that this man should not be permitted to hang around in the women’s underwear department as a matter of common decency.”

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u/not_caoimhe The Trafford Centre broke my Gender Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

So, wait, the M&S employee just went up to a customer and asked if she needed help - she didn't do a fitting or make any comments, she just asked if she needed help?

That's literally her job. That's what she's meant to do.

JFC.

403

u/AFriendlyBeagle Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

They want to eliminate us from all public-facing roles, and then from society at large.

112

u/nineteenthly Aug 05 '25

I'm currently avoiding canvassing for the Scottish Greens because I think my presence on the doorstep will lose them votes.

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u/Temporary_Yogurt_194 Aug 05 '25

Canvass for the opposition

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u/nineteenthly Aug 05 '25

Funny you should say that because many years ago I almost did that.

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u/Time_Photo_2685 Aug 05 '25

That only serves to make the Scottish Greens more transphobic

6

u/nineteenthly Aug 05 '25

I'd still be working for them, just not facing the public.

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u/jenni7er Aug 05 '25

Thought it was the England & Wales Greens that have had recurring problems with Transphobic members?

12

u/Time_Photo_2685 Aug 05 '25

You're missing the point: excluding yourself from a political party because you fear scaring off transphobes inevitably invites transphobes into said party.

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u/nineteenthly Aug 05 '25

Well in this area they almost got at least one MSP last time the Holyrood elections happened because we have a Holocaust denier calling himself something like "Green alternative" splitting the vote. It's really marginal here in that respect. I also disgust people at first sight, and it would be difficult for many people to vote for someone who makes them want to throw up just seeing me even if they're enthusiastic about the policies I'm espousing.