Why does Penny Mordaunt think ‘trans men are men’?

Something dramatic happened in the House of Commons yesterday: Penny Mordaunt told MPs that ‘transmen are men and transwomen are women’. This mantra – for that is what it is – has been said so often in recent years that it might now be an unremarkable way in which to wind up a debate. But it is a worrying sign to see it repeated so unthinkingly in parliament.

Mordaunt is wrong: transwomen are male, and women are female. Male people are not female people, and therefore transwomen are not women. As a transwoman I should know: I fathered three children – I am definitely male. Their mother was a female person. She is a woman, not me.

The context of Mordaunt’s remark was the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill: a bill that allows the Prime Minister to designate a Minister on maternity leave as a ‘Minister on Leave’. Once upon a time, such legislation would naturally have talked about pregnant women.