Two top female writers, an insult about Brazilian transsexuals and a firestorm on Twitter. Do natural-born women have the right to say what they like about men who change sex?

Julie Burchill has come under fire for a column in yesterday's Observer



The columnist described transsexuals as 'd**** in chicks' clothing'

She was writing in defence of fellow columnist Suzanne Moore

Miss Moore had been forced off Twitter after criticism of another article

She said women were pressured to have bodies like 'Brazilian transsexuals'



Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone has called for Ms Burchill to be sacked

Miss Featherstone also wants Observer editor John Mulholland sacked



A controversial newspaper columnist has been accused of being transphobic after she wrote an article attacking transsexuals as 'bed-wetters in bad wigs' and 'd**** in chicks' clothing'.

Julie Burchill wrote a column in the Observer yesterday defending her friend and fellow columnist Suzanne Moore who came under fire on Twitter for an article that said women were under pressure to have bodies like 'Brazilian transsexuals'.

The Observer website was swamped with comments in response to Miss Burchill's column, many describing it as 'vile' and 'horrible'.

Comments have since been suspended on the story and a message posted on the website says that it is now subject to an 'inquiry' to be carried out by the paper's Readers' Editor.

The comment also provoked fury on Twitter.



Liberal Democrat minister Lynne Featherstone called for Miss Burchill to be sacked for attacking transsexuals as ‘bed-wetters in bad wigs’.

The former Equalities Minister, a staunch supporter of transsexual rights, said she should be fired and her newspaper’s editor John Mulholland should also go.

'Sack her': Former equalities minister Lynne Featherstone, left, has called for Observer columnist Julie Burchill, right, to be sacked after she wrote an article that described transsexuals as 'bed-wetters in bad wigs'



Miss Burchill wrote the article in defence of fellow columnist Suzanne Moore, who became the target of transsexuals’ fury over what seemed to be a throw-away comment in a previous article.

Miss Moore, describing the challenges faced by modern women in an article for the New Statesman, had written that modern women were expected to look like ‘Brazilian transsexuals’.

She had said: '(Women]) are angry with ourselves for not being happier, not being loved properly and not having the ideal body shape – that of a Brazilian transsexual.'



The comment provoked fury on Twitter and Miss Moore subsequently said she had been forced to stop using the website because of the abuse she had received.

Miss Burchill ranted: 'Though I imagine (Twitter) to be something akin to being savaged by a dead sheep, as Denis Healey had it of Geoffrey Howe, I nevertheless felt indignant that a woman of such style and substance should be driven from her chosen mode of time-wasting by a bunch of d**** in chicks' clothing.



She added that the reaction of ‘the very vociferous transsexual lobby and their grim groupies’ reminded her ‘of those wretched inner-city kids who shoot another inner-city kid dead in a fast-food shop for not showing them enough “respect”.’

Under fire: Julie Burchill's column was in defence of friend Suzanne Moore, left, who was criticised for a piece in the New Statesman. Minister Lynne Featherstone has also called for Observer editor John Mulholland, right, to be sacked



Lynne Featherstone, now Minister for International Development, accused Miss Burchill and the Observer of ‘inciting hatred’.

She said on Twitter: ‘Julie Burchill rant against transgender community is absolutely disgusting – a bigoted vomit for which the Observer should sack her.’

The Liberal Democrat politician said the editor of the Observer, John Mulholland, should also be sacked.

Replying to a message on Twitter saying Mr Mulholland should go, she said: ‘Good point – they both can go!’

She later added: ‘Not illiberal to stand against inciting hatred - evidenced in Ms Burchill’s writing and Observer’s decision to publish.’

Miss Featherstone added: ‘Defending Suzanne Moore is not an excuse. Ms Moore is a brilliant writer - and I hope she is ashamed of Julie Burchill’s rant re trans.’

Miss Burchill’s column also compared the attacks on Suzanne Moore to ‘the Black and White Minstrels telling Usain Bolt how to run’.

The row started when Suzanne Moore said in a column that modern women were expected to have bodies like 'Brazilian transsexuals'. Brazilian Cristini Couto is pictured posing after she was elected Miss Transexual International in Madrid

She added: ‘I must say that my only experience of the trans lobby thus far was hearing about the vile way they have persecuted another of my friends, the veteran women’s rights and anti-domestic violence activist Julie Bindel – picketing events where she is speaking about such minor issues as the rape of children and the trafficking of women just because she refuses to accept that their relationship with their phantom limb is the most pressing problem that women – real and imagined – are facing right now.’

Miss Burchill was supported on Twitter by Miss Bindel, who writes for the Observer’s sister paper the Guardian.

She said of her article: ‘This has been a long time coming, the bullying has to stop.’



But not all at the Guardian News & Media were so supportive.



The Guardian website last night published a retort to Miss Burchill’s column by a transgender rights activist.



Entitled ‘Julie Burchill has ended up bullying the trans community’, her article described Miss Burchill’s comments as a ‘list of negative epithets legitimising the currency of hate speech’.



She added: ‘The basic point behind everything she says is that trans people lead essentially inauthentic existences and that hers, as a working-class novelist with a taste for lobster and champagne, is real life.’



Readers also took to the Observer website in their hundreds to complain about Ms Burchill's argument.

Many readers described it as 'vile', 'shameful' and 'disgusting'.



The Observer website version of Ms Burchill's article carried a message that said a number of complaints had been received since its publication.

It said that it is subject to 'an inquiry' by the readers editor.



The message from the Observer readers editor Stephen Pritchard said: 'As you might imagine, I have received many emails protesting about this piece this morning.



'Thank you to those who have written. I will be looking at this issue and will be replying to all in due course.'

A poll of readers on the Independent website following the article saw 90 per cent deem Ms Burchill's article offensive.



Ms Burchill, 53, is a self-confessed 'militant feminist'.

As well as being a journalist from the age of 17, she is also an acclaimed novelist with her 1989 novel Ambition becoming a bestseller.