Trans woman ‘humiliated’ after being ‘repeatedly misgendered’ by Northern Rail worker
Eden Vickerman says she was repeatedly misgendered by a Northern Rail officer in a transphobic incident at Manchester Piccadilly on 11 June 2021. (Instagram/@edenjamesv)
A trans woman says she was subjected to “public humiliation” in a transphobic incident where she was repeatedly misgendered by a Northern Rail officer.
Eden Vickerman, 25, told Manchester Evening News that she was travelling to Manchester to attend a dental appointment Friday (11 June). Vickerman explained that her train was running late so she boarded another service heading to Manchester Piccadilly.
Upon arriving at Manchester Piccadilly, she said her ticket was “flagged that I was on the wrong train” even though there was “no issue” with her ticket before. Vickerman said a woman scanned her ticket before passing her over to “two men who were working at the ticket desk”.
“One of the workers said I should have got on a certain train, which I didn’t realise, but as I tried to explain, he started misgendering me,” Vickerman said. “He said to me: ‘Yes sir, you have to board that specific train.'”
Vickerman told Manchester Evening News that “all the signs were there” because she was “literally standing in front of him with a ponytail, acrylic nails and a bra on”. She said she tried to politely correct the Northern Rail officer, but she claimed he continues to misgender her.
“I think he was training the other worker because everything I was saying, he was relaying it back and explaining all while calling me ‘he’ and ‘sir’,” Vickerman said. “I kept correcting him by saying it’s ‘miss’ or ‘she’ but by the fifth time, it really started to annoy me.”
She continued: “He just looked me up and down and tutted and looked at his colleagues as if he couldn’t understand the point I was trying to make.
“He said something along the lines of, ‘Man, woman, whatever! God, what’s the world coming to, eh?’
“I’m not proud, but I just turned around and shouted, ‘Oh, get a f**king grip, mate.'”
Vickerman said she initially left the train station before returning to collect the worker’s details so she could report the transphobic incident to Northern Rail.
According to Manchester Evening News, Northern Rail has apologised to Vickerman. The company said it is investigating the incident and will take “appropriate action once this investigation is complete”.
In a post about the incident on Facebook, Vickerman said the formal complaint was with Northern Rail, but it “wasn’t getting anywhere”. She explained she wanted to share her story to raise awareness about “what is happening in regards to trans people and our rights in the UK right now”.
“The article was written to encourage those involved to do the right thing and to make systemic changes within their company to better serve EVERYONE,” Vickerman said. “The article was written to prove the issues it discusses not only exist, but are thriving and are putting people like me in actual physical danger everyday.”
She added that she is “completely fine” after the transphobic incident and the publication of the Manchester Evening News article. Vickerman wrote: “I will only ever do what I can to help my community and to help make things easier for the next trans person that steps into their truth.”
