Richard O’Brien has made his name by penning songs about sweet transvestites, but he has now caused outrage after saying trans people can’t be women.

The 73-year-old British performer, who is very open about his own genderfluid identity, said he agreed with Germaine Greer and Barry Humphries on their views on trans people.

Greer previously said: ‘Just because you lop off your cock and then wear a dress, doesn’t make you a fucking woman.’

Speaking to Metro, the Crystal Maze presenter was asked about trans-exclusionary feminists who claim that surgery doesn’t make someone a woman.

‘I think I agree with that. I agree with Germaine Greer and Barry Humphries,’ he said. ‘You can’t be a woman. You can be an idea of a woman. You’re in the middle and there’s nothing wrong with that.

‘I certainly wouldn’t have the wedding tackle taken off. That is a huge jump and I have all the sympathy in the world for anyone who does it but you aren’t a woman.’

Earlier in the interview, he said he thought of himself as ‘third sex’ who is ‘somewhere in the middle’ of the two binary genders.

‘I wish we would see ourselves as members of a sentient race of beings and be nice to each other as human beings as opposed to male or female.’