Women who oppose allowing men to self-identify as women have enabled “fascists who want to eliminate trans people”, the CEO of Edinburgh Rape Crisis has claimed.
Mridul Wadhwa, a man who identifies as a woman, made the remarks at a webinar organised by the Sheena Amos Youth Trust, a Sheffield-based LGBT charity.
Wadhwa was recently blasted for implying that rape victims who want single-sex spaces to be protected are “bigots” who should expect ‘to be challenged on their prejudices’.
‘Desperate smear’
In the speech, Wadhwa said that people who opposed the Scottish Government’s moves to introduce radical gender ideology were: “exposing themselves as being on the right and being very comfortable associating with fascists and those who would want to eliminate anybody who is not cisgendered and white in our society”.
He claimed that the recent protest by concerned women outside the Scottish Parliament was “organised by those who oppose GRA reform, but also by those within that group who oppose the existence of trans people”.
The protest’s organisers For Women Scotland slammed the CEO’s “shocking comments” as “a desperate smear Wadhwa should know will be used to justify harm and doesn’t care”.
The Times reported that Wadhwa had accepted that there was no basis to his claims.
‘Disgraceful’
Wadhwa’s remarks follow similar comments from the pro-trans writer Judith Butler.
In an interview with The Guardian she said: “anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times”. The comparison was later edited out.
The Christian Institute’s Ciarán Kelly said the claims were “simply the latest in a series of disgraceful attempts to silence those who defend the reality of biological sex”.
The Scottish Government is set to press ahead with controversial reforms to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 despite widespread opposition.
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