Trans woman’s inclusion on BBC’s 100 Women list sparks sad but predictable outrage
The BBC is being critcised for including a trans woman on its 100 Women list (Lorenzo Palizzolo/Getty Images for Prada)
The BBC is under fire for including a trans woman on its 100 Women 2024 list – Colombian scientist Brigitte Baptiste.
The annual list features 100 of the most “inspiring and influential” women from around the world, who are pioneers in their fields and making change from local to international levels.
This year’s list includes deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, Pakistani singer Hadiqa Kiani and Taiwanese LGBTQ+ politician Huang Jie.
Also on the list is Colombian ecologist Brigitte Baptiste, a transgender woman who was included for her work on “common patterns between biodiversity and gender identity”.
The BBC said Baptiste used a queer lens to look at nature, as a means to better protect ecosystems, and cited Colombia’s national tree, the Quindío wax palm, as how “the change of sex and gender has been regularly reported by science”.
Baptiste was director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute, in Berlin, for a decade before taking up a similar post at Universidad Ean, a university in Colombia’s capital Bogotá. She also campaigns for funding to help more LGBTQ+ people into higher education.
However, the news of her inclusion has been met with anger from some quarters.
Kate Barker-Mawjee, the chief executive of anti-trans group LGB Alliance, wrote on social media that the decision was a “breathtakingly insulting move”.
In response, other anti-trans figures misgendered Baptiste, insulted her appearance and berated her research.
This backlash comes just days after Orlando Pride and Zambia footballer Barbra Banda was voted BBC women’s footballer of the year, and, despite being a woman, she was transvestigated.
In addition, the broadcaster was criticised, even though Banda was chosen by readers of the BBC Sport website.
The controversy arose over the fact Banda was left out of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations team in 2022 after allegedly being found to have high testosterone levels.
A later investigation reportedly found the levels were not “anything but naturally occurring”.
Anti-trans former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies called Banda “male” and labelled the award “bl**dy ridiculous” while round-the-world yachtswoman Tracy Edwards referred to it as “the destruction of women’s sports”.
The controversy around Banda echoed the abuse faced by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif during this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
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