Debbie Hayton (born 1968) is a transgender British

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

science teacher and political activist.

Activism

Since 2016, she has been a vocal opponent of

gender self-identification Gender self-identification is the concept that a person's legal sex or gender should be determined by their gender identity without any medical requirements, such as via statutory declaration. It is a major goal of the transgender rights movemen ...

, and supports laws which aim to define

women-only space A women-only space is an area where only women (and in some cases children) are allowed, thus providing a place where they do not have to interact with men. Historically and globally, many cultures had, and many still have, some form of female sec ...

s as being based on

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

rather than

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

. She has spoken at meetings for

Woman's Place UK Woman's Place UK (WPUK) is a British political advocacy group founded in 2017. The group is opposed to gender self-identification for trans people in the UK, and has advocated restricting access to women-only spaces on the basis of "sex, not g ...

, a " gender-critical" group. At a July 2019 event hosted by

Fair Play For Women The decennial 2021 censuses of England and Wales and of Northern Ireland took place on 21 March 2021, and the census of Scotland took place on 20 March 2022. The censuses were administered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in England an ...

, Hayton wore a T-shirt which (mimicking a slogan by Stonewall) stated that "Trans women are men. Get over it." She was criticised and threatened with expulsion from the LGBT+ committee of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

for her actions. Hayton had sat on the committee for five years. In 2020, the

National Education Union The National Education Union (NEU) is a trade union in the United Kingdom for school teachers, further education lecturers, education support staff and teaching assistants. It was formed by the amalgamation of the National Union of Teachers an ...

's Trans and

non-binary Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...

network criticised Hayton's appointment by the union for a role on the TUC's LGBT+ Committee. Hayton's inclusion in

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

resource materials caused controversy at

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly (Church of England), Church Assembly, is t ...

in 2021.

Jayne Ozanne Jayne Margaret Ozanne is a British evangelical Anglican. Having coming out, come out publicly as gay in 2015, she campaigns to safeguard LGBTQI people from abuse. Jayne founded and launched the Ozanne Foundation in 2017 which works with religiou ...

criticised the inclusion, describing Hayton as someone "outspoken in her denial of the very existence of trans people". Synod member Ian Paul supported Hayton, asking Bishop

Sarah Mullally Dame Sarah Elisabeth Mullally, (''née'' Bowser; born 26 March 1962) is a British Anglican bishop, Lord Spiritual and former nurse. She has been Bishop of London since 8 March 2018.

about actions being taken to protect Hayton "from intimidation and from attempts to silence her". Hayton is also often criticized by other

trans-exclusionary radical feminists TERF () is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term was originally used to distinguish trans-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists who reject the assertion that trans women are wome ...

using arguments such as her use of female pronouns, being married, and allegedly seeking validation through deception.

Personal life

Hayton is a transgender woman, who underwent

gender transition Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman,Brown, M. L. & Rounsley, C. A. (1996) ''True ...

in 2012 and

gender reassignment surgery Gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a transgender or transsexual person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender, and alle ...

in 2016. She is married with three children.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayton, Debbie English women journalists Living people English LGBT journalists English transgender writers Transgender women writers Transgender journalists 21st-century English LGBT people 1968 births