Transgender C of E priest sparks anger from top BBC presenter Dame Jenni Murray

BBC broadcaster Dame Jenni Murray has said that men who have sex change operations to become women cannot be 'real women'.

The Woman's Hour presenter says in an article in The Times that having lived as men and enjoyed male privileges, they cannot understand what it actually is to grow up female.

Those who have lived as men, with all the privileges that entails, do not have the shared experience of growing up female, she maintains.

Murray reveals: 'The first time I felt anger when a man claimed to have become a woman was in December 2000, when the Rev Peter Stone announced he had undergone...surgery to transition from male to female and was now called Carol.

'Her primary concerns, she told me, were finding the most suitable dress in which to meet her parishioners...and deciding if she should wear make-up.

'I remember asking Carol what she owed those women who had struggled for so long to have their calling to the priesthood acted upon. His calling, as a man, had never been questioned. I had nothing but a blank look and more concerns about clothing. "I know it sounds silly," she said. "But I've nothing to wear."'

Murray says that too many men who become women model themselves on male view of what a woman should be.

She singles out transgender TV presenter India Willoughby for remarks she made on Woman's Hour.

'India held firmly to her belief that she was a "real woman", ignoring the fact that she had spent all of her life before her transition enjoying the privileged position in our society generally accorded to a man,' says Murray.

'There wasn't a hint of understanding that she was simply playing into the stereotype — a man's idea of what a woman should be.'

Willoughby responded angrily on Twitter, and pledged:

The gay rights campaign group Stonewall said Murray's remarks were 'reductive'. Her comments also promoted anger on social media: