A trans employee of The Guardian has expressed that they are “scared to go into work” after the organisation published a column calling for the protection of “women’s sex-based rights”.

On Monday, March 2, The Guardian published an article titled Women must have the right to organise. We will not be silenced, written by columnist Suzanne Moore. The piece discusses a connection between female oppression and reproduction, calling for the protection of ‘women sex-based rights’. It states, “You either protect women’s rights as sex-based or you don’t protect them at all.”

The Guardian posted the article on Twitter where it has currently received over 500 likes, 172 retweets and numerous comments voicing a largely positive reaction to the piece, as people write, “Good article…good to see something that reflects how women feel about these policies being forced on us” and “Hey Guardian! Thank you for publishing this excellent article in support of women.” Twitter users are praising the ‘sense’ and ‘spot on’ nature of the column and the organisation’s choice to publish it.

However, in response to the publication, a Guardian employee wrote on Twitter, “I’m literally fucking crying reading this utter garbage fire, how is this allowed to be published??? I’m an employee at @guardian and I’m scared to go into work tomorrow. (sic) I’ve already had transphobic Editorial views to me…What’s next after this threat?”

The employee’s Twitter post has over 800 retweets and at present 3.8K likes. The comment section highlights a mix between positive and negative reactions. One person wrote, “Everyone here who says the article is about women’s right to organise and speak up, it’s not. It’s about wanting to exclude some women, about gatekeeping womanhood, about denying trans women a crucial part of their identity. But feminism that’s just for some women isn’t feminism.”

Another person responded with, “I’m so sorry. The transphobia in media is so utterly despicable. Sending love, no one should have to deal with this.”

The employee has also faced backlash for speaking out about the harm the piece has caused them. One person responded to the post with, “I think you’re dramatising a little. No-one wants to discriminate against trans-people However women have a right of response and a right to claim their sex-based rights. I don’t think this is a threat to you or anyone else, let’s have a sensible discussion instead of histrionics.”

One person wrote, “Anyone who thinks this is transphobic is clearly too young to understand the fragility of women’s rights. The freedoms you enjoy, and our generation fought for, are not something you appreciate yet. You will when you’re older, assuming they’re still there.”

However in contrast to The Guardian‘s overwhelmingly positive comment section, the Guardian trans employee has been met with people criticising her for speaking out about her fears. As one person responded, lots of people were “lasciviously drooling over the possibility of you being harassed and/or fired from your job just for existing as a trans person.”