UK Edition
A gender-critical Newcastle United fan says the club have suspended her membership because police investigated her for tweeting that “trans women are men”.
The 34-year-old, who asked not to be identified, was interviewed under caution by police after a complaint over tweets in which she also said that gender-affirming surgery was “mutilating children”. The investigation has now been dropped.
The woman was told by the club that her account had been “temporarily suspended” while Northumbria Police investigated her for online posts.
The lifelong Magpies supporter said the club had still not reinstated her membership. “I have been in shock about the whole thing,” she told the Telegraph. “I’ve missed some big games. It’s been a bit of a nightmare.”
Newcastle United were approached for comment but did not respond.
The woman, who lives a stone’s throw from St James’ Park, the club’s home ground, pays £37 a year for membership, which means she can enter the ticket ballot before general sale.
‘Standard practice’
She had already been to several games this year, including home victories against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Paris Saint-Germain, by the time she received an email from the club’s security complaints team on October 31 about her membership.
The club said it was “standard practice” to suspend anyone under police investigation and that her alleged offence “contravenes our ground regulations”.
It came as a shock for the loyal supporter, who was unaware she was under police investigation at all. “I didn’t have a clue what I had been accused of,” she said.
On Friday, she was asked to attend a voluntary interview at Forth Banks Police Station in relation to “malicious communications” over several posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
One tweet read: “Just your daily reminder that trans women are men,”
Another read: “This period of time where people are mutilating children will be looked back in history with disgust. I’ll be able to say I never agreed with this.”
Investigation dropped
Despite police dropping the investigation, the woman said the club had not yet restored her membership. While she has been suspended, she missed out on tickets for upcoming fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester United.
“They are big games that I look forward to,” she said.
The lifelong fan watched games with her grandfather growing up. One of her most treasured possessions is a Newcastle shirt signed by Alan Shearer. Aged eight, she ran onto the club’s training pitch to ask the striker for his signature.
The woman, who now works in hospitality, said she felt the club’s decision to suspend her was unfair and had made the ordeal of the police interview worse.
She said: “There’s a part of me that still feels like I’ve done something wrong. I’m a good person and the last thing in the world I would want to do is to hurt someone with my words.”
Harry Miller from WeAreFairCop, a gender-critical organisation which advised the woman, said: “There’s nothing that comes close to being criminal. The process is the punishment. They (police) do this to terrorise members of the public. They have put this woman through absolute hell.”
A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “We are aware of commentary on social media relating to a report of suspected malicious communications. As we continue to look into this matter it would be inappropriate to comment any further.”