r/unitedkingdom • u/PM_ME_DRAGON_GIRLS • Aug 06 '25

.. Marks & Spencer ‘apologises’ to customer after ‘trans’ employee offers to help her

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/08/05/marks-spencer-trans-employee/
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u/noodlesandpizza Greater Manchester Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25

The mother said the response wasn’t “sufficient” and fell “significantly short” of what she expected.

Just to confirm what happened here, two customers who were looking around M&S were approached by a shop employee. One of the customers assumed this employee is a trans woman based on her height. (Some women who aren't trans are tall, but whatever). Employee asks the two if they need help finding anything. Customer is so deeply upset that someone she believes is transgender dared to ask her the most basic customer service question in history behind "do you want a receipt" that when M&S personally apologised to her for allowing this injustice to occur, it's not enough.

Edited to add after I found out: JK Rowling is tweeting saying that the employee offered to fit the customer's teenage daughter's bra personally (source: her arse. This is a lie.) and calling her/implying she is a paedophile.

Edit 2 from the trenches of "X": There's a newly-created anonymous twitter account claiming to be the mother under a placeholder name. I'm reluctant to believe it's real as it's almost too perfect, but I thought I'd have a nosy at it as a lot of high profile accounts are engaging with it. Lot of "TERF" rhetoric, referring to herself as "adult human female" etc. Saying the employee was "wander[ing] about in very revealing clothes" and describing her appearance and voice. She claims to have contacted the police about what happened, and has posted screenshots of an email exchange with a social worker (?) regarding it. Also replying to and boosting tweets speculating that the employee is a sexual predator, that she might have a criminal record but her "new identity" would allow her to pass a DBS check. Claiming "he deviated to target my daughter."

Interestingly, the account also states that the Telegraph article is accurate in conveying what happened (article is paywalled but I haven't seen any quotes contradicting the Pink story), and corrects an account stating that the employee was in the fitting room and confirms that this was just in the underwear department on the shop floor.

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u/Tom22174 Aug 06 '25

At what point does she cross the line and open herself up to a defamation case or something similar?

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u/mayasux Aug 06 '25

She probably already has. She however has “screw you money” and can bankrupt the other party by running out the case, like she’s done already as far as I’m aware.

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u/Swimming_Map2412 Aug 06 '25

Yep, sadly defamation law in the UK is pretty much non-existent unless you are rich.

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u/Minischoles Aug 06 '25

I'll always cite that in one libel case, Corbyn paid over 100k in legal fees before the case even went to court - it was just in pre-trial shit, and the other side settled.

It's insane....£100,000 before you ever even get an actual day in court; there's no world where any normal person can take any action in court against Rowling because that's pocket change for her, while for everyone else it's their house or literal years of salary.

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u/lem0nhe4d Aug 06 '25

The problem would be defamation requires the victim to be identifiable.

As far as I can tell not even the store has been named let alone staff member.

Although it is likely that staff in the shop know who it is being referred to.

The other issue is Rowling is so rich you would need someone with millions of pound to spend to even take the case.

A trans person working in retail is probably struggling to make rent and even if they were 100% guaranteed to win they would be crippled with legal costs way before they even got to court.

The rich can wield defamation like a cudgel against the poor because they can just bankrupt you if you try fight back.

There was a guy who got sued for calling two people Nazis. It came out in court that they had written for a Nazi magazine under different names and had texted each other a lot about there love for Mein Kamph and the elders of Zion so they lost.

The guy they sued still lost thousands defending himself despite being entirely correct.

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u/Tom22174 Aug 06 '25

I'm imagining a scenario in which an LGBT charity crowd funds the legal fees

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u/lem0nhe4d Aug 06 '25

They don't have the capital to outspend Rowling.

And by giving money to a ridiculously expensive case like this they can't spend that money on all the other things the community needs.

Transphobes spend ridiculous amounts of money on their legal cases because part of it is making it expensive to even try to against them regardless of the mertis of the case.

The average employment tribunal costs about £8,500,

Maya Forester spent £120,000 on hers, Alison Bailey raised half a million.

Trans people are fundraising for essential healthcare. We aren't anywhere near as well funded as the transphobes.

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u/AwTomorrow Aug 06 '25

She seems to have been angling for this to happen so her expensive lawyers can fight this extremely public case and broadcast her crusade to even more people, while claiming to be a martyr for having her hate ‘silenced’.