Jess Bradley (Courtesy: NUS Connect)

UK — Manchester, England. In July 2018, Jess (né Josh) Bradley, the first person to be elected Britain’s ‘transgender students’ officer’ by the National Union of Students (NUS), was suspended for allegedly posting explicit photographs on an online blog.

Images on the website include an individual flashing while sitting in a train carriage, in a public park and at a bus stop. Additionally, a photograph shows male genitals being exposed in an office close to a curved wooden desk that appears identical to a picture of a work desk posted on Bradley’s Facebook page. The blog was exposed by the Twitter account @xNoMoreSilencex, which tweeted numerous examples of alarming posts attributed to Bradley.

@xNoMoreSilencex exposes Jess Bradley on Twitter

An NUS spokesperson confirmed that Bradley had been suspended from the post ‘pending an investigation’:

As a result of allegations against NUS trans officer Jess Bradley, she has been suspended pending an investigation. The matters pertaining to the investigation are confidential to allow for a fair and impartial process. NUS will continue to support Jess, full time officers, staff and volunteers during this time.

Jess Bradley, director of Action for Trans Health, gave evidence at a Government inquiry in 2016. The report recommended updating legislation to allow an individual to choose the sex that appears on his or her legal documents without needing a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. (Courtesy: Twitter)

In response, University of Birmingham’s Trans Student Officer, Finn Humphris, released a statement on July 30, 2018, condemning the “transmisogyny” Bradley had faced on social media and in the press, signing it “Love and Solidarity”.

Finn Humphris, Trans Student Officer at UoB, issued a statement in support of Jess Bradley, who was fired for engaging in exhibitionism and sharing the lewd images online.

In December 2018, a former committee member of Action for Trans Health posted a series of tweets outlining further allegations, with an initial warning of “content notes for this thread: sexual misconduct, sexual assault, rape, incest, exhibitionism, wibbly consent stuff.”

On January 23, 2019, Bradley’s ex-spouse, Sarah McCulloch, reported receiving “a number of comments from people whom I was at university with who confirmed numerous incidents had occurred regarding Jess Bradley that fitted what had been reported.” Concerned about how the investigation was being handled, McCulloch stated:

At this point, this scandal is not about Jess Bradley, whom I love deeply but I had to let go because she just couldn’t understand the impact of her actions on others. She has shown through these desperate attempts to cover up what she has done that she has learned nothing. She will do her. This isn’t about her. This is about whether the people who are so quick to demand solidarity, to cite trans safety as a justification for all of their political positions (Prison abolition? Trans issue. Don’t argue.), to condemn, decry and denounce anyone who is not paying attention to the most recent theories and vocabulary developed on Tumblr, to apply their own principles to one of our own. So far, I’m not seeing it, and I am shocked and appalled.

Jess Bradley on That’s Manchester TV’s Late Night Live to discuss the challenges of trans health, particularly as faced by those who identify as “non-binary.”

On October 21, 2019, McCulloch reported that the NUS had taken no action with respect to its investigation into Bradley’s “inappropriate behaviour at work”:

This is all so, so corrupt. All of these NUS Officers are being paid indirectly by the taxpayer to cover up what are essentially crimes, and no-one will touch it with a barge pole because of the raging public debate over trans rights and no-one wants to be seen attacking trans people. But at its heart this has nothing to do with trans people and is a straight-forward case of lewd sexual misconduct being covered up by publicly funded bureaucrats with massive conflicts of interest.

McCulloch also notes that the University of Manchester “dismissed [Jess] immediately from her PhD programme for gross misconduct. They, at least, did not require a year-long investigation on full pay to realise that this is not ok.”

Private Eye’s Union News report on Jess Bradley

Read more on this story Britain’s first official transgender student officer suspended over claims she posted explicit photographs of a person flashing in a train carriage and public park to her online blog

Daily Mail

Britain’s first official ‘transgender students’ officer’ has been suspended over allegations that she posted explicit photographs on an online blog. Campaigning transgender student denies inappropriate ‘sexual activity’ after suspension from NUS role

Manchester Evening News

The first ever national transgender students officer has been suspended pending an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour.