Property guru Kirstie Allsopp, of all people, defends TikToker Dylan Mulvaney amid anti-trans backlash
We’re as shocked as you are, but Kirstie Allsopp’s trans allyship is a surprising win. (Getty)
TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has proved that anyone can be a trans ally by showing her support for TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.
The sometimes-controversial Location, Location, Location presenter tweeted about Mulvaney following recent controversies surrounding the social media star’s brand deals with Nike and Bud Light.
“Gender-critical” pundits began vehemently misgendering Mulvaney after she was photographed in a Nike brand sports bra and leggings as part of a promotion with the company.
Additionally, anti-trans right-wingers began destroying their Bud Light beer cans after Mulvaney revealed she had received a gift from the brand to mark the first anniversary of her ‘days of girlhood’ TikTok series.
On Thursday (13 April), Allsopp tweeted that she was happy for Mulvaney in her transition and wasn’t worried by anyone identifying as a woman.
“I am a woman, Dylan Mulvaney wants to be more like me than she was when she was born,” Allsopp said. “I have no problem with anyone who sees being a woman as a positive thing.”
Following a wave of “gender-critical” pushback, Allsopp didn’t back down, saying that anti-trans pundits had “decided” to feel threatened by Mulvaney’s partnerships with Nike and Bud Light.
“I urge those with views on the debate to have a look at Dylan’s TikToks,” she said. “Childish perhaps, a bit silly arguably, but they don’t threaten me or any women I know.
“There are issues to debate, but Dylan isn’t the problem and targeting her is bullying.”
Her allyship has come as a shock to many, especially considering her history of comments on social media
She has often been the focus of controversy, including talking about parents taking children on holiday during school term time.
But it was her column in The Sunday Times, where she claimed young people were at fault for being unable to get on to the housing market, that caused the biggest uproar.
In the article, which was soon deleted online, Allsopp said that young people’s reckless spending was the reason they were unable to afford buying a home.
The star, whose family helped her buy property when she was 21, and when the average house price in the UK was about £51,000, said young people should simply move somewhere cheap, quit the gym and stop going on holiday.
She said that she bought her first home when the “EasyJet, coffee, gym, Netflix lifestyle didn’t exist”.
“I used to walk to work with a sandwich, and, on pay day, I’d go for a pizza and to a movie, and buy a lipstick,” she said. “Interest rates were 15 per cent, I was earning £11,500 a year.”
Despite the history of animosity towards her usual blunders, Twitter users commended her for having a “rare Kirstie Allsopp win”.
One user wrote: “I didn’t have ‘Kirstie Allsopp comes out swinging for Dylan Mulvaney’ on my bingo card, but I’ll surely take it.”
Others tweeted that they were “very much here” for her and anyone’s genuine allyship.
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