Julia Hartley-Brewer bans the word ‘cis’ on TalkRadio show
TalkRadio host Julia Hartley-Brewer
TalkRadio host Julia Hartley-Brewer threatened to remove a guest from the studio during a discussion on trans rights because he used the term “cis.”
The right-wing radio host had been discussing a report on the transgender prison population with comedian Steve Allen on November 30.
In the discussion, Hartley-Brewer said it was a “very big risk” for women to be “kept in cells alongside people who are biologically men.”
She added: “If you are physically intact as a man, you are not in a woman’s prison, end of. Nothing to discuss.”
Steve Allen responded: “If you are in a woman’s prison, you should be safe from being physically attacked, by a cis or a trans woman. Everyone should be safe in prison.”
Steve Allen (left) clashed with TalkRadio host Julia Hartley-Brewer
However, Julia Hartley-Brewer cut in: “You’re not allowed to come on my show and say a cis or a trans woman. A woman or a trans woman.
“I’m not a cis woman… we are women. We are biologically women. I’m not going to have that BBC claptrap on my show.”
Allen attempted to explain that cisgender means a woman who is not transgender, deriving its root from the Latin “cis,” the opposite of “trans.”
“If you say that, I’m going to ask you to leave my studio.”
— Julia Hartley-Brewer
But the radio host continued: “I’m not a cis woman, I’m a woman. I was born a woman, 50 percent of this population are women. We don’t have to adjust what we’re called for a tiny minority of activists who don’t even represent trans people.”
When Allen offered to use the term “non-trans women” to differentiate women who are not trans, Hartley-Brewer threatened to eject him from the studio.
She said: “If you say that, I’m going to ask you to leave my studio. I’m absolutely serious. I’m not having it.
“I’m not having our language in this country in this way. You are a woman or a man. I’m quite happy for someone to be a trans woman or a trans man, but you don’t take away what I am because you choose to use your gender.
“The two groups are woman and trans woman.”
Julia: “I’m not a CIS woman, I’m a woman. I’m not going to have that BBC claptrap on my show. If you say that I’m going to ask you to leave my studio.”@JuliaHB1 | @mrstevenallen | @VanessaLPlatt | @RichardJGarside | https://t.co/sv3MZUm41c pic.twitter.com/tA3e5jE5h4
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) November 30, 2018
Although anti-transgender activists frequently attack a “powerful transgender lobby,” trans people have warned they have faced an onslaught of abuse fuelled by media rhetoric over the past year.
Julia Hartley-Brewer has attracted anger before
Julia Hartley-Brewer attracted hundreds of complaints in June 2016 after a controversial appearance on Sky News in the wake of the massacre of 49 people at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, Florida.
The radio host had been appearing alongside gay Guardian columnist Owen Jones on the TV channel’s newspaper review, but fell out with Jones when he described the attack as “one of the worst atrocities committed against LGBT people for generations.”
Presenter Mark Longhurst insisted it was an attack against “human beings,” while Hartley-Brewer told Jones: “I don’t think you have ownership of horror or this crime because you’re gay.”
Owen Jones, who was visibly distraught in the segment, walked off the set.
Hartley-Brewer later said she would not apologise to Jones for the spat, describing his actions as a “childish tantrum” and claiming: “Perhaps he has more in common with Islamic State than he thinks.”
