Is Kemi Badenoch’s leaked audio a set-up?

The headline reads, ‘UK Equalities Minister Goes on Anti-LGBTQ Rant in Leaked Audio’. Oh dear, I thought. As a lesbian and a harsh critic of the Tory government, I wondered what had been said. I scoured the piece in Vice, expecting something along the lines of ‘pervert’ and ‘unnatural’ and something about how we will be marrying our vacuum cleaners next.

But it was all rather tame and boring. Badenoch said:

It’s now, you know like, it’s not even about sexuality now, it’s now like the whole transgender movement, where, OK well we’ve got gay marriage and civil partnerships, so what are transsexuals looking for? … So now it’s not just about being free to marry who you want, you now want to have men using women’s bathrooms.

My reading of her words is that she acknowledged the progress made in terms of lesbian and gay rights and was bemoaning the fact that trans activists are demanding the right to invade women-only spaces.