A British couple in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, were visited by police after contacting a local councillor about a women-only event organised by their daughter. Dave and Viv Boardman, both 67, claimed they were confronted at home by two officers wearing body cameras and threatened with arrest if they contacted their local councillor.
In January 2023, Boardman’s daughter Cathy—who is bringing an employment tribunal against a music college she says unfairly dismissed her for asking students whether drag acts were sexist—staged a “women-only” fundraiser to support her case. The allegedly “transphobic” event was postponed, and Mr. Boardman emailed Labour councillor Rebecca Boden to complain.
Although Boden replied from her municipal email address, she has since argued she was not acting on council business and instead called the police. Subsequently, the couple filed a subject access request, allowing them to secure and share police footage of their 20-minute interrogation and bring it to public attention. The row follows new reports from around the same time of a toddler in nursery school being excluded for “transphobia or homophobia.”
