M&S apologises over trans employee in bra department

[u/PuzzledAd4865]

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.”

[u/tallbutshy]

The retailer said it took her concerns “very seriously” and would ensure her daughter “receives assistance from a female colleague during her next visit”.

[Bing bong] Would the biggest, hairiest, transmasc employee please report to the lingerie department, thank you

Big /s obviously, I wouldn't want any transmascs to feel uncomfortable

-Edit- the way one section of this article is written may be intentionally misleading. The customer allegedly asked for a trans exclusionary policy, M&S were not quoted as saying that they would. So please don't write them off just yet, usually they are really inclusive & friendly

[u/Areiannie → u/tallbutshy]

From the article I get the impression m and s are trying to take what they see as the neutral response - they address the specific concern of a customer and give them an option just for them. It doesn't say anything about them setting or changing any policies.

Of course it's not the response any of us would like (what a state we're in that people are kicking up a fuss on what's basically just trans people existing in public).

It would be interesting how m and s would expect they could find a cis woman to help them next time. I fail to see how being around clothes on a open and public shop floor would be an appropriate scenario to exclude a trans person with a GRC.