Ulrika Jonsson insists she’s not transphobic in bizarre, factually-inaccurate rant about trans ‘cancel culture’
TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson has insisted she is not transphobic (Getty/Mark Cuthbert)
TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson has insisted she is not transphobic as she baselessly claims trans activists are trying to stop her being referred to as “mother”.
The former Gladiators host used her column for The Sun to parrot a widely-circulated but untrue claim that a hospital trust “is instructing midwives to refer to mothers as birthing parents and the act of breastfeeding as chest-feeding”.
The demonstrably false claim stems from a guidebook published by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which directs to staff use gender-inclusive phrases to make same-sex couples and trans people feel more accepted, but specifically made clear it should be used in addition to existing terminology such as “mother” for cis women.
The use of terminology inclusive of same-sex couples in maternity care has been standard practice for many years.
Nonetheless seizing upon the imaginary issue, Jonsson complained: “At at what point am I allowed to stand up and say my breasts are called breasts because that is what they biologically and organically are?”
Ulrika Jonsson parrots anti-trans rhetoric
She continued: “They are not the chest of a man or an antique piece of furniture with drawers – they are body parts that many times have produced milk for my babies.
“Why can I not enjoy being called a mother? I don’t want to be a ‘birthing parent’. Why does traditional terminology always have to incite negative connotations?
“I’m wondering at what point the thought police will arrest me for still calling my undercarriage a ‘nunnie’. Will ‘bush’ even be allowed?”
Ulrika Jonsson during Celebrity Mum of The Year 2004. (GettyMike Marsland)
She went on to cite a poll conducted by the Reclaim Party led by the former actor Laurence Fox, who has smeared LGBT+ people as paedophiles and vowed to boycott Sainsbury’s for supporting Black History Month.
The poll published by Fox suggested that “42 per cent of those questioned did not want to talk openly about transgender rights for fear of a backlash”.
TV presenter suggests trans people want to stop her swearing
Jonsson continued: “Look, I swear. I curse and blaspheme. Swearing is part of my DNA. Some say it shows a lack of vocabulary and are highly offended.
“I say it’s the intonation and emphasis of my sentences you need to listen to, not scrutinising the words themselves.
“The trajectory we’re on is a precarious and dangerous one, one that will rupture and lead to greater conflict and discord. Change, for change’s sake is not progress. Surely, that’s not what the transgender community wants either?”
Jonsson insists she is not transphobic, stressing in the piece that “progress in the understanding and tolerance of the trans, bi and queer community may have felt painfully slow for those in dire need of inclusion and empathy over the past decades”.
