M&S apologises over trans employee in bra department

Telegraph

21 hours ago

Marks & Spencer has apologised to a mother for causing her teenage daughter 'distress' after she was asked if she needed help by a trans employee in its bra section.
The retailer said it was 'truly sorry' after the mother complained that her 14-year-old daughter had felt uncomfortable when they were approached by a transgender shop assistant in the lingerie area of the store, where they were hoping to have a bra fitting.
Although the staff member was polite, the mother said she felt it was 'completely inappropriate' for her daughter to be approached by a 'biological male' in that part of the store.
In a complaint to M&S, she told the retailer: 'Imagine her horror, then, when the person to approach us and ask if we needed help was a transgender 'woman', ie, a biological male.
'Visibly upset'
'This is obviously the case: he is at least 6ft 2in tall... My daughter recoiled, so I politely declined the offer and we left immediately. She was visibly upset and said she felt 'freaked out'.'
The following day, an M&S customer service assistant replied, apologising for the incident.
'Thank you for reaching out to us and sharing your experience,' the email said. 'We deeply regret the distress your daughter felt during her visit to our store.
'We understand how important this milestone is for her, and we are truly sorry that it did not go as you had hoped.'
The retailer said it took her concerns 'very seriously' and would ensure her daughter 'receives assistance from a female colleague during her next visit'.
'We want to make this experience as comfortable and positive as possible for her. Please let us know when you plan to visit again, and we will make the necessary arrangements,' the email said.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that trans women can be excluded from women-only spaces because equality law protecting women refers to biological sex.
Britain's highest court ruled that transgender women are not legally women, and that 'sex' in equality law refers only to biological sex.
The incident in M&S, in March, came a few weeks before the ruling.
In her complaint, the mother argued that the retailer's response fell 'significantly short of the response that was required to satisfy me that M&S takes seriously the safety and dignity of women and girls'.
The mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the retailer had acknowledged 'this colleague is not female' but this was 'not sufficient to offer just my daughter the protection of not being approached by him'.
She asked the retailer for confirmation that it would not happen to any other teenagers, and that M&S would implement a policy to ensure that transgender staff would not approach young women.
It is understood that the staff member involved works across the clothing section as well as other parts of the shop and is not one of the staff members who carries out bra fittings.
'Entirely inappropriate'
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for the human rights charity Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about biological sex in law and life, said that M&S needed to 'rethink its priorities'.
'This is what happens when a business centres the feelings of men who identify as women, even at the expense of their own customers. It is entirely inappropriate for a man to approach a teenage girl in a lingerie department. Being dressed in women's clothes doesn't change that. It's extraordinary that a man would regard himself as entitled to do such a thing; most men know how unwelcome that would be.
'M&S needs to rethink its priorities and remember that women and girls have rights too, and that this man should not be permitted to hang around in the women's underwear department as a matter of common decency.'
An M&S spokesman: 'We want our stores to be inclusive and welcoming places for our colleagues and customers.
'We have written to this customer and explained that our colleagues typically work across all departments in our stores and customers can always ask to speak to the colleague they feel most comfortable with.'