Paris Lees: More should be done to stop abuse of LGBT teens
Transgender Vogue columnist Paris Lees reveals she was ‘having sex in toilets’ at 14 with men who groomed her – and says more needs to be done to stop the abuse of vulnerable LGBT teens
- Journalist Lees told her 81,000 followers on Twitter that more needs to be done to address the abuse of vulnerable LGBT teens
- She referenced a 2018 interview with LBC presenter James O’Brien in which she discussed having sex at the age of 14 with ‘grown men’, calling it abuse
- Discussing debate around transgender people using public toilets, Lees said: ‘Why aren’t we having a public debate about how to keep kids safe in toilets?’
A transgender woman who experienced shocking abuse as a 14-year-old says more needs to be done to help vulnerable LGBT teens.
Paris Lees, who writes for Vogue magazine and is an ambassador for beauty company Pantene, told her 81,000 followers on Twitter that the current debate about transgender people using public toilets should also focus on better protecting young people.
Referencing an interview with James O’Brien from 2018, in which she discussed the abuse she’d suffered as a teenager, Lees said: ‘I tell @mrjamesob in this interview about having sex with grown men in public toilets when I was 14.
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Journalist Paris Lees, who’s transgender, told her 81,000 followers on Twitter that more needs to be done to address vulnerable LGBT teens, referencing her own experience of having ‘sex at 14 with grown men’
Discussing debate around transgender people using public toilets, Lees said: ‘Why aren’t we having a public debate about how to keep kids safe in toilets?’
‘How is that anything other than abuse? Where was the public outrage? Why aren’t people upset at something we KNOW is happening to vulnerable LGBT kids?’
In the same thread, Lees, who grew up in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, and transitioned in her late teens while studying in Brighton, added: ‘Why aren’t we having a public debate about how to keep kids safe in toilets? I’m not the 1st person to talk about this. We all know it’s happening.
‘Are we saying it’s OK? For children to walk into toilets and be abused? We’re going to ignore that to focus on hypothetical threats?’
Last month, Lees invited Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who’s made a series of controversial comments about transgender people, to lunch, offering to introduce the writer to people from the trans community.
Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf (right) slammed JK Rowling (left) as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘threat to LGBT people’ in a row over the authors latest controversial tweets
On Wednesday, Rowling published an open letter on her website, in which she defended her comments about transgender people, and also revealed she is a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor.
The Harry Potter author received a widespread backlash over the weekend after taking issue with a headline about “people who menstruate” and tweets that were accused of transphobia.
The Harry Potter creator yesterday likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’.
Transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf slammed Rowling as ‘dangerous’ and a ‘threat to LGBT people’ in a row over the author’s latest controversial tweets.
The Harry Potter creator today likened hormone therapy and surgery for transgender young people to ‘a new kind of conversion therapy’
Bergdorf was quick to slam the author’s statement and wrote: ‘Mark my words. JK Rowling is dangerous and poses threat to LGBT people
Bergdorf was quick to slam the author’s statement and wrote: ‘Mark my words. JK Rowling is dangerous and poses threat to LGBT people.
Rowling’s statements were backed by Baroness Emma Nicholson – who is embroiled in a row with Bergdorf over allegations that the Tory peer bullied her – who dubbed Rowling ‘the very bravest of women’.
She was also lent support from Walt Heyer, who transitioned to a woman and then back to male who called her ‘my hero’.
She added: ‘Trans healthcare is not conversion therapy. This is INSANE.’
In a separate Tweet she wrote: ‘JK Rowling is not a scientist. She is not a doctor. She is not an expert on gender. She is not a supporter of our community.
‘She is a billionaire, cisgender, heterosexual, white woman who has decided that she knows what is best for us and our bodies. This is not her fight.’
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