Joan Smith is a British writer, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist from the movement’s gender critical faction.
Background
Joan Alison Smith was born August 27, 1953. She attended University of Reading. She was on staff at The Sunday Times from 1979 to 1984.
She is author of the Loretta Lawson series of crime novels. Her nonfiction books include Misogynies (1989), Different for Girls: How Culture Creates Women (1998), and Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists (2019).
In 2015, she was elected chair of Labour Humanists, a group promoting secularist policies and humanist values within the Labour party.
Smith was married to journalist Francis Wheen from 1985 to 1993 and was partners with politician Denis MacShane from 2003 to 2010.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2021, Smith was fired as C0-Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, a volunteer role she’d held since 2013. The decision came after a governance review. Officials denied her claims that it was because of her anti-trans activities.
She frequently writes anti-trans articles for UnHerd. She is a member of Sex Matters Advisory Group.
References
Brook, Libby (August 19, 2021). The Guardian London mayor’s office denies feminist activist’s claims over sacking https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/19/london-mayors-office-denies-feminist-activists-claims-over-sacking
Smith Joan (August 20, 2021). Why did Sadiq Khan’s office fire me? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-did-sadiq-khans-office-fire-me/
Resources
UnHerd (unherd.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)