Germaine Greer: ‘You can hold a knife to my throat, I won’t recognise trans people’
Germaine Greer has given an interview for the first time since her controversial appearance on BBC’s Newsnight, and nothing appears to have changed when it comes to her views on transgender people.
The renowned feminist bluntly told The Update “there are men who have been married and who have had children and who believe they’ve been women all along.
“I don’t believe them. Sorry, you can hold a knife to my throat. I don’t believe you.”
Greer also made the bizarre claim that trans people can automatically annul their marriage if they change the gender marker on their passport and if they receive gender reassignment surgery, and that doing so would leave their former spouse unable to claim child support.
“If they accept gender reassignment, which means changing their sex and their passport, their marriage is annulled,” she claimed.
“Now that’s not even just ended, that’s annulled, what that says is there was never a marriage…
“The wife is dumped, and the children are bastardised. And that’s the law! I can’t get over that! It was never discussed!
“And they’ve got nothing and they’ve got no come back, they can’t claim child support or anything so obviously something has to happen there.”
Before the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the UK, the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 made it a requirement that if a person in a marriage sought a gender recognition certificate, they would have to seek annulment or divorce before a gender recognition panel would grant them the certificate.
After same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013 the requirement to end the marriage before a gender recognition certificate could be issued. However, a new requirement was introduced that meant that the spouse seeking a certificate would have to seek the permission of their spouse before they could be issued with one.
The Female Eunuch author did point out that the treatment of Intersex needs to change.
But Greer had one more thing to say about trans people at the end of the interview, saying:
“My critique of transsexual-ism as it’s currently being demonstrated is you go from one stereotype to another and our fight is actually against the stereotype itself. So the notion of blessed womanhood that is accepted by most transsexuals is not one that I agree with, I think it’s profoundly wrong.”
Greer has a long history of making transphobic comments. She has previously claimed that “Lopping off your d**k and wearing a dress doesn’t make you a f***ing woman” and has accused Caitlyn Jenner of transitioning so she could steal attention from her Keeping Up With the Kardashians co-stars.
Cardiff University faced calls to ban Greer from speaking at the University due to her transphobic views, igniting a national debate on the subject of freedom of speech.
Watch the full video below.
