By insisting that people be referred to by what others perceive (perhaps wrongly) to be a preferred identity, we are embarking upon a very slippery slope and with that imposition in place there can be no frank discussion. I once addressed a letter to ‘Mr’, completely unaware that the recipient was a transvestite who preferred to be addressed as ‘Miss’ – and I was lambasted for it. Who’s to know? Whatever this person wants to be, the photograph portrays a man because it is a photograph of a man. Regardless of aspiration, of surgery, of hormone treatment or whatever else, men will never be women. On this occasion arriving in a festively comical Ann Summers outfit couldn’t have helped. For all anyone knew he might have been dressing up just to give the patients a laugh – and having seen the photograph that would have been my assumption. I am not ‘transphobic’ – whatever that may mean – and as has been said it must be difficult for people in that situation but, as a woman, I feel that my gender is being hijacked by men aspiring to be women – even to the extent that they are now competing quite unfairly, in my opinion, in women’s sports. This is something I feel very strong about and I shouldn’t be rebuked for voicing that opinion. If this person is a woman, what does that make me? Frankly the demand that the rest of the world join them in their pretence by treading on politically correct eggshells is wrong. This is something that will always happen and it’s something that those in that position must expect, and learn to deal with. Their problems are their problems.