Dylan Mulvaney says trans rights ‘shouldn’t be political’ – ahead of ruling to define ‘woman’
Social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney has told Sky News discussion about transgender rights should not be political.
Mulvaney, who documented her own transition in a viral TikTok series, was speaking ahead of a Supreme Court judgment in London on Wednesday about how women are defined in law.
The 28-year-old US social media personality told Sky’s Barbara Serra on The World: “I’ve seen my family completely accept me and love me. And I think that that’s why I haven’t given up on any person or any group of people.”
She also called for “transness” to no longer be a political topic – “because it shouldn’t be”.
“We’re just humans trying our best,” she said.
On Donald Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an executive order directing the US government to recognise only two, biologically distinct sexes – male and female.
And he directed the state department to change its policies to only issue passports that “accurately reflect the holder’s sex”.
The administration has argued the policy does not constitute unlawful sex discrimination, does not prevent transgender people from traveling abroad, and is vital to addressing the concerns the order raised that indeterminate definitions of sex undermine “longstanding, cherished legal rights and values”.
Asked about Mr Trump’s policies, Mulvaney said: “It’s a sad thing to see someone trying to take away the rights of humans that are just trying to live their lives. Again, we’re not monsters. We’re people that have woken up and stepped into our authentic selves. For me, that’s a very camp, fun, feminine human being who also happens to be a woman.
“And I think what I’m now excited [for] is to step into this next chapter of my life and realise that there are so many other trans people who should be speaking on those things. And I’m finding my way in right now, which is through theatre.”
What’s the background to the court case?
The landmark Supreme Court case, where five judges at the UK’s top court heard arguments last November, is the culmination of a challenge brought by For Women Scotland (FWS) over whether trans women can be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act.
The Supreme Court in London. Pic: Reuters
Wednesday’s ruling may have a big influence over how sex-based rights are applied through the act across Scotland, England and Wales, including implications for the running of single-sex spaces.
Campaigners from FWS say sex-based protections should only apply to people who are born female.
They are challenging the Scottish government, which says they should also include trans people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).
The FWS action is seeking to overturn a decision by the Scottish courts in 2023 which found treating someone with a GRC as a woman under the Equality Act was lawful.
What have the two sides said?
Ruth Crawford KC, for the Scottish government, told the court last November that a person with a GRC, which she said was a document legally recognising a change of sex and gender, was entitled to the “protection” afforded to their acquired gender as set out in the 2010 Equality Act.
But Aidan O’Neill KC, representing FWS, said “sex just means sex, as that word and the words woman and man are understood and used in ordinary, everyday language, used every day in everyday situations by ordinary people”.
Mr O’Neill called for the court to take account of “the facts of biological reality rather than the fantasies of legal fiction”.
The case is the latest in a series of legal challenges brought by FWS over the definition of “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018, which mandates 50% female representation on public boards.
Pic: Reuters
Beer brand ad controversy
In 2023, US sales of Bud Light fell and profits dropped following a boycott of the beer brand after it made a promotional deal with Mulvaney.
Many conservatives, including former US presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, stopped buying Bud Light after Mulvaney posted an ad for the brand on her social media account and shared an image of a personalised can.
Mulvaney told Barbara Serra that for “writing my book I really wanted to make good of a really dark situation that was happening when I took an unexpected beer brand ad”.
“And I think that while that was such a dark period of time in my life, and I think a lot of trans people’s lives, I really wanted to show that if you keep going, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m feeling happy and healthy in my life right now,” she said.
Mulvaney is starring in a new musical in London, called We Aren’t Kids Anymore, starting later this month.
Entertainment
Harvey Weinstein accuser says film mogul ‘took her soul’ during alleged sexual assault
An ex-model has tearfully told a court that being sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein when she was 16 was the most “horrifying thing I ever experienced” to that point.
Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault
Kaja Sokola told the film producer’s retrial that he ordered her to remove her blouse, put his hand in her underwear, and made her touch his genitals.
She said he’d stared at her in the mirror with “black and scary” eyes and told her to stay quiet about the alleged assault in a Manhattan hotel in 2002.
Ms Sokola told the New York court that Weinstein had dropped names such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow, and said he could help fulfil her Hollywood dream.
“I’d never been in a situation like this,” said Polish-born Ms Sokola. “I felt stupid and ashamed and like it’s my fault for putting myself in this position.”
Weinstein denies sexually assaulting anyone and is back in court for a retrial after his conviction was overturned last year.
Read more: Weinstein is back in court – but what has happened to the #MeToo movement since 2017?
Weinstein denies the allegations. Pic: Reuters
The 73-year-old is not charged over the alleged sexual assault because it happened too long ago to bring criminal charges.
However, he is facing charges over an incident four years later when he’s said to have forced Ms Sokola to perform oral sex on him.
Prosecutors claim it happened after Weinstein arranged for her to be an extra in a film.
“My soul was removed from me,” she told the court of the alleged 2006 assault, describing how she tried to push Weinstein away but that he held her down.
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Ms Sokola – who’s waived her right to anonymity – is the second of three women to testify and the only one who wasn’t part of the first trial in 2020.
Miriam Haley testified previously in the retrial. Pic: AP
Miriam Haley last week told the court that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. The other accuser, Jessica Mann, is yet to appear.
Claims against the film mogul were a major driver for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse in 2017.
Weinstein’s lawyers allege the women consented to sexual activity in the hope of getting film and TV work and that they stayed in contact with him for a while afterwards.
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