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Munroe Bergdorf: transgender model to advise Labour minister

The 29-year-old will work with equalities minister Dawn Butler despite her inflammatory comments on race last year

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published 27 February 2018

Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf has been appointed as an LGBT adviser to a Labour Party minister.

The model and campaigner says she’s “thrilled” to have been asked to “form and push through fairer and more effective policy change”, the BBC writes.

A spokeswoman for shadow equalities minister Dawn Butler, who appointed Bergdorf to a panel of advisers, said: “Dawn is proud to stand with those challenging discrimination. Dawn will consult with the LGBT+ advisory group on a wide-range of LGBT+ issues.”

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The Independent reports that Bergdorf’s role as part of a group advising Butler is “unpaid and the panel is not managed by Labour”. Other advisers include Linda Riley, publisher of a magazine for lesbian and bisexual women, and entrepreneur Anthony Watson.

Bergdorf made history when she was hired as cosmetics firm L'Oreal’s first transgender model. She was fired just days after the appointment after comments were unearthed in which she alleged that white people’s “entire existence is drenched in racism”. Her remarks were made in connection with the race-related riots in Charlottesville.

“From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***,” Bergdorf said, according to The Daily Telegraph. “Their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth. Racism isn’t learned; it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege.”

Bergdorf’s comments were later deleted from a Facebook post.

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