When gender fluid Tabitha appeared on Good Morning Britain, she faced the wrath of hot-headed interviewer Piers Morgan.
21-year-old Tabitha identifies as gender fluid, which means her gender identity can shift between male and female from one day to the next.
Tabitha – who was born female – spends some days as Tabitha, where she dresses as a woman and dates a man, and other days as Tate, where he dresses as a man and has a relationship with a woman.
On the day of the Good Morning Britain interview, Tabitha was feeling to be a woman. However she explained she never knows what gender she will be until she wakes up in the morning, admitting it can be confusing.
Tabitha said:
There’s no percentage at all – you just get what you’re given on the day.
Tabitha revealed how she uses women’s bathrooms as Tabitha and men’s bathrooms as Tate. When Piers enquired how she was able to use a urinal, she replied: “There’s a prosthetic penis that you can pee through.”
Piers appeared to be genuinely baffled after asking personal details about Tabitha/Tate’s public toilet habits and did not take too kindly to this at all.
He indignantly asked:
You can’t be male or female… why should you have the freedom and I don’t?
You can watch part of the interview which divided Good Morning Britain viewers below:
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At one point, Tabith made a ‘slip up’ when discussing her identity, briefly appearing to mix up being gender fluid with being transgender:
That is the difficult thing about being trans… Sorry, gender fluid. The reason I said trans is because I have many trans friends.
Of course, being gender fluid and being trans are two very different things. A trans person is an individual whose gender identity does not fit with the one they were assigned at birth.
A gender fluid person such as Tabitha may be much more flexible with how they regard their gender identity.
Piers suggested Tabitha’s ‘confusion’ regarding gender could stem from her biological father transitioning to become a woman, who is now known as her mother, Petra.
This mention of family history appeared to make Tabitha look visibly uncomfortable.
However, Tabitha was clear there was no ‘confusion’ about her gender, offering the following clarification:
I’m not confused about being male and female, it just takes a couple of minutes to work out.
The pair clearly did not see eye to eye, with Piers refusing to accept the idea of gender fluidity:
My problem with this is you can’t be male or female. You’re born one or the other.
If you want to have an operation fine, I just don’t get this gender fluid stuff.
If you can identify as who the hell you like, can I literally look at myself and say – and I’ve made this joke before – I’m an elephant today.
Why should you have the freedom and I don’t? Where does this go?
Tabitha confirmed she would have no issue with Piers identifying as an elephant.
Piers later defended himself on Twitter against accusations he had come across as transphobic in the interview:
I fully support transgender rights.
I don’t support ‘gender-fluid’ bulls**t.
Another day, another heated Piers Morgan interview…
Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.