British Choreographer Accused of Trans-Phobia

Last December, famed British choreographer Rosie Kay resigned from the dance company she founded in 2004.  She said she's been forced out for views on sex and gender, expressed at a dinner party in her home in August.  

The choreographer said she could not "endure this humiliation any longer" and spoke to the media about her decision to resign.  Complaints made by the dancers present at the party led to an "unfair, opaque and horrific investigation process that's still ongoing", Kay said.  In a statement, the dancers said they wanted to "set the record straight and to ensure that any dancers under the supervision of Rosie Kay do not undergo the same marginalization that we have suffered".

Kay has been making challenging, socially committed and political work for decades.  She said the event in late August was supposed to be a bonding dinner for a dance company about to perform Romeo and Juliet. She explained she had wanted to entertain dancers at her home ahead of the show's opening, after the long months of the pandemic had lowered spirits.  "We'd had no social time because of Covid," she told the BBC. "I cooked, put candles in the garden, and made a lot of effort as I wanted them to enjoy themselves." 

The dancers see it differently.  They told the BBC that she was their boss, in a position of authority, which they felt made it an "unequal situation" from the start. "It was a work environment... she abused her position of power," one company member said.  

Late into the evening, the conversation got "heated", according to Kay, as they discussed the next show she was planning, based on Virginia Woolf's Orlando-- a novel about a poet who changes from a man to a woman.  Kay believes what ensued at the dinner illustrates how women who stand up for women's rights are deliberately smeared with accusations of trans-phobia and more.

The dancers claim Kay said that "identifying as non-binary is a cop out", that "allowing trans people to take hormone blockers is creating eunuchs" and that "trans women are a danger to actual women in toilets and only want access to female toilets to commit sexual assault".   They claim, as alcohol was consumed, she crossed a line by airing her views in a hostile way.

The letter, signed by six members of the company, added: "Rosie spoke about 'the cake of rights' and stated women have fought for their slice of rights and now men pretending to be women want a portion of that slice. This is a deeply offensive analogy and due to the fact that two trans non-binary people had a seat at the table, it felt very pointed."

One of the company members said, "Initially, I was OK with her asking about why we identify as non-binary. It's OK to be a bit curious. But her repeated questioning stepped into micro-aggression territory [and] she asked people to confirm their genitalia."

These descriptions of the language she used are strongly contested by Kay. "I said, and it is correct to say, that women are losing rights to males who identify as women. These include rights to single sex spaces. This is not an analogy, it is a statement of fact, and I do not apologize for it."  

"This was a dinner in my own home, at which I was attacked by six individuals. The hostility was directed at me, and has lasted for nearly four months. I make no apology for standing up against this treatment, using the 'power' that I have earned through a 20-year career.  Other women who do not have this power, cannot stand up like I have done. This is not aimed at the dancers, but at the toxic nature of a culture that will see women lose their livelihoods for believing that sex is real.  I'm still in shock that hospitality could end with such an accusation."

After the dinner, a complaint was made to the dance company's board by some of the dancers. Kay wrote an apology to the dancers, saying in part: "I am devastated by how the night went and how much it has affected you. It was never my intention to upset you, but I see now that I did so profoundly. I am truly sorry for this."

Some of the dancers didn't feel the apology was "made with true ownership of the fact that she made trans-phobic comments. By refusing to use dancers' correct pronouns and rejecting their trans non-binary identities, Rosie is denying that a trans non-binary person can exist," they state in the letter. "This is trans phobia."

When asked by the BBC if she was trans-phobic, Rosie Kay said: "Absolutely not. I believe in sex-based protections and women's sex-based rights.  I'm not trans-phobic. I believe adults can behave and live any way they want, but I believe in the protection of women's rights.  The presence of males who may falsely say they are trans women in female toilets can cause trauma to women who have suffered sexual assault, as a significant number of women have."

"It's been absolutely terrible for my mental health," Kay went on to say. "I don't blame the dancers. Everyone is entitled to their views. But I do feel I have been put through an unfair process and those in control of the Rosie Kay Dance Company have shut down a leading female choreographer.  They decided to cancel my upcoming show, Orlando, without any discussion. But be assured, the people who have conspired to make my life so miserable over the last four months have not cancelled me. I will be back."

Iona McGuire, a non-binary dancer at the center of the row, said: "We weren't striving to cancel Rosie. I was hoping for acknowledgement of her blatant trans phobia and an apology for her constant refusal to use my correct pronouns.  I was not going out of my way to have Rosie Kay removed from the company, I wanted there to be proper acknowledgement of what had happened."

Kay denies having ever refused to use dancers' chosen pronouns and that "what the dancers mean by 'blatant trans phobia' is nothing more than a recognition that sex is biological, immutable and binary".

For some, the story will raise questions about what you can say in your own home or whether employers should be more perceptive about conversations they have with employees. For others, it might be an example of how generations are divided on the issue of trans rights, and even the nature of conversation itself.  Hopefully, the conversation can continue in beneficial way.