Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf quits as Labour LGBT+ advisor after 'relentless online abuse'
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Loading... - Bruna Rayes
- 06 Mar 2021
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Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf has quit her role advising the Labour Party on LGBT+ issues after 'relentless online abuse'.
The 29-year-old was hired by Labour to work with the shadow minister for women and equalities, Dawn Butler last month.
At the time she said she was "thrilled" to have been asked to help the political party "form and push through fairer and more effective policy change" on their LGBT+ advisory committee.
But she faced calls to resign after a number of the model's controversial comments were unearthed.
Today she announced on Twitter that she was stepping down because she did not want the scandal to distract from the work of the committee.
"Following last week's exciting announcement that I had accepted a place on an LGBT advisory board assembled to offer counsel to Dawn Butler, the Labour party's women and equalities minister, it is with great sadness that I have decided to step down," Bergdorf said.
"This is a decision that I've had to make due to endless attacks on my character by the conservative right wing press and relentless online abuse. I refuse to be painted as a villain or used as a pawn in the press' efforts, especially those at The Daily Mail , to discredit the Labour Party and push their transphobic rightist agendas."
She continued: ​"I wanted my appointment to be something positive and exciting for the community, but instead it has turned into nasty tabloid fodder, blown out of all proportion."
A spokeswoman for Ms Butler told the Independent: “Dawn is proud to stand with those challenging discrimination. Dawn will consult with the LGBT+ advisory group on a wide-range of LGBT+ issues.”
Bergdorf was forced to apologise after tweets she posted around eight years ago using the words “poof” and “dyke” and which made fun of a “hairy lesbian” friend’s “barren womb” were discovered by a newspaper.
Bergdorf issued an apology on Twitter, in a tweet which reads: “Who I was at 23 years old, is not who I am at 31.”
“Regarding any offensive tweets that I’ve posted in the past; namely those tweets shared playfully between close friends, I want to begin this letter by apologising. I am sincerely and wholly sorry – both to those who I cruelly speak about in those tweets, but also sorry to the entire LGBT+ community and anyone who has supported me over the past year."
She faced calls to step down from the position from Conservative MPs, including out gay Tory MP Nigel Evans who said: "I’m absolutely shocked. I don’t know which community she’s representing but it is certainly not mine."
Munroe was labelled "the face of modern diversity" when she became the first transgender model to front a campaign for L'Oreal.
But shortly afterwards she was dropped after comments were unearthed in which she said all white people were racist.
The model wrote a Facebook post, which it's claimed included the comment: "Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.
"Because most of ya’ll don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour.
"Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s---.
"Come see me when you realise that racism isn’t learned, it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege.
"Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk.
"Until then stay acting shocked about how the world continues to stay f------ at the hands of your ancestors and your heads that remain buried in the sand with hands over your ears."
The comments were later deleted and Bergdorf explained they had been written in response to the far-right march in Charlottesville and had been misinterpreted.
She said at the time: "When I stated that 'all white people are racist', I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy - designed to benefit, prioritise and protect white people before anyone of any other race.
"Unknowingly, white people are SOCIALISED to be racist from birth onwards. It is not something genetic. No one is born racist."
L'Oreal said her comments were "at odds" with their values and it ended its partnership with her.
