A young trans woman was deleted off a bisexual dating site after she complained because they outed her as trans to potential lovers.

Dawn, who only wants her first name to be used, told Gay Star News she was surprised because the same people also run a trans dating site.

Hub People, owners of The Bisexual Club, based in the Isle of Man, say their rules are to protect other members. They also run The Trans Club and BDSM Club.

Dawn told GSN she joined The Bisexual Club in February. She gave her gender as female and initially included in her profile the fact that she is trans. However, she very quickly changed her mind about this, and deleted it.

She was surprised to see the Hub People re-inserted this detail, changing her membership type to ‘CD/TV/TS’. This was not done at her request, and she complained to the site admin.

Hub People responded they were aware she was transgender, and ‘this is categorized under TS for our database purposes’, she told us.

They pointed out that her gender was still given as female – but added: ‘We cannot change your member type to female, sorry.’

To do so, they said, would be ‘misleading’ to other members.

Dawn repeated her objection, claiming it breached equality law. She told the Hub People she would keep her account open ‘during the process of the complaint and legal procedures’.

A half hour later, they terminated her account, deleting her profile and all her details.

Gay Star News raised the matter with Hub People.

A spokesperson said they do not make calls about member type, unless information comes to light that would make member type inconsistent with what they know. As far as they were concerned, Dawn had already disclosed the fact she was trans.

Their spokesperson told us: ‘We have a duty of care to the other members of the site that if we feel a member profile is inconsistent or we believe may be untruthful eg a scammer/troll claims to be in UK but IP address in Nigeria (sic) for example, etc to remove them from the system.’

He added: ‘We do update the gender or member type for transsexual members on user request from time to time too. As long as the resulting profile is truthful and consistent we are happy.’

Hub People say they are not in breach of equality legislation. GSN asked an equality lawyer and was given an inconclusive answer.

Hub People do not consider the termination of the account to be unfair victimization of Dawn.

Most trans people appear to have no issues with disclosing their gender history, where appropriate. They simply believe it should be for them to decide what it is appropriate to disclose – and at what point in a relationship.

Long-term trans activist Christine Burns said: ‘If trans people are required to [include] their medical history in their profile then I want everyone else to.

‘I want to know about the halitosis and smelly feet, the alcohol problems, the eczema, the genital warts, the concurrent relationships and the criminal records too. After all, these might also be deal breakers.

‘I may be dating someone with fetishes that would gross me out but I take on that possibility in getting to know people. To single out trans history is to say that it is a uniquely bad thing that must be avoided at all costs.’