Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre CEO Mridul Wadhwa quit her position after a sustained attack by anti-trans campaigners lasting several years. This also follows the release of an independent report commissioned by Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) written by Vicky Ling which people in the trans community are finding questionable to say the least.
I’m frontloading this right from the get go; Mridul Wadhwa quit her position as a direct result of sustained anti-trans campaigning against her wherein the primary grievance is the fact that she is transgender. Whether or not ERCC was being run perfectly under her or not is so far besides the point it may as well be in another solar system.
There is absolutely nothing this woman could have done right; she could have fully toed the bigoted party line, like some trans people have, and like those trans people she would still have been treated like crap by the bigots. They hate transgender people. It is literally that simple.
The independent report written by Vicky Ling does an excellent job of explaining exactly why the above needs to be frontloaded in the way it does when explaining the context under which Mridul Wadhwa quit. Ling writes; “At the same time the Trustees had to deal with an important legal challenge concerning sex and gender discrimination, which put ERCC and them personally at the centre of toxic debate on social media”
Which is clever framing that aims to shift the blame away from a bigoted hate campaign that was targeting Mridul Wadhwa from Day 1 and onto the victim of said campaign; Wadhwa, for how she and her organisation responded to that when it showed up at her workplace. The judgment for the tribunal Ling mentions during this section specifically talks about the “considerable press controversy” about Wadhwa’s appointment as CEO.
Indeed there was. Nothing makes this more stark than using your favourite search engine’s ability to filter by date and searching her name. Before her appointment in May of 2021 her results turn up things like this – a piece about her supporting marginalised women as an SNP activist. After her appointment is announced however we get pieces from anti-trans groups about how she’s terrible and evil.
A lot of this controversy focuses on comments she made on the Guilty Feminist podcast. A good amount of the search results post-appointment are simply transcripts of this podcast including some hosted on prominent anti-trans org’s websites. One anti-trans website posts the following quote from Wadhwa on the podcast as if its a damning indictment of her character;
“sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. And so, you know, it is not discerning crime. But these spaces are also for you. But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices, you know, to me, therapy is political, and it isn’t always seen as that”
(note: I did not add the bold to bigoted people. This was emphasis added by the owner of the bigoted website)
Bigots were also outraged about other things Wadhwa said on the podcast and you can search the phrase “reframe your trauma” to see op-eds and blogs all over the place condemning her for calling bigotry what it is and saying it shouldn’t be tolerated; it should be challenged.
The independent report into Wadhwa also mentions this podcast citing it as evidence that “ERCC has caused damage to some survivors”. It refers to the previously mentioned tribunal and cites an email submitted into evidence and attributed to an anonymised service-user.
In the email the service-user writes; “To hear you are CEO of a Rape Crisis Centre say that I am a bigot because I could not bear to be in the proximity of my husband yesterday let alone a male who is a complete stranger was an absolute punch in the gut. The idea of reframing my trauma to make him, or any male more comfortable while trying to hold myself together and not descend into that all too familiar dark spiral makes me incredibly angry.”
Wadhwa categorically did not say this person was a bigot for having a trauma response and not being able to let her husband hug her. There is absolutely no way to read what Wadhwa said and misconstrue it as such unless you are deliberately being obtuse or otherwise blinded by rage fueled by bigoted liars.
Wadhwa’s comments are very clearly addressing anti-trans activism in the UK and even refer to being bigoted specifically to her, a transgender woman. But even if they weren’t – even if they were addressing this service-user’s experience in particular… it probably isn’t super healthy to flinch whenever your partner tries to console you. It probably is a thing you should work on in therapy and which would benefit you – and those you love – greatly to do so.
Throughout the email the service-user repeats a desire for Mridul Wadha to lose her job, resign or otherwise stand-down. And also this tidbit which I found personally quite funny and unserious for what is being framed as a very serious email we must take very seriously;
“In all honesty I rolled my eyes a bit when the conversation mentioned something along the lines of sexual violence doesn’t have to be physical it can be words. I thought pfft, words are not violence. By the end of the day for the first time I understand how words could be violence as well.”
Making fun of progressives for the idea that words can cause harm to people and any harm is a form of violence is a mainstay of the online right wing which was adopted by anti-trans organising in the UK. You can again search “words are violence” on your favourite social media or search engine and find probably hundreds of them making the same joke over and over and over again and claiming its an affront to free speech.
The independent report by Vicky Ling continues by mentioning another complaint demonstrating the “damage caused to some survivors by ERCC”;
“In July 2024, another woman contacted the reviewer and asked to speak about her experience. She had been in contact with ERCC and wanted to be clear that support would be provided by someone who was biologically female. The gender identity/gender affirmative approach she felt was adopted by Rape Crisis Scotland and ERCC did not provide such assurance. She said she was aware that women were excluding themselves from approaching Rape Crisis Centres including ERCC because of this.”
So in short someone called up asking for something which the service was unable to provide for a whole myriad of reasons, not least being that ERCC and other centres don’t sex test their staff and would not be allowed to give out their private medical information even if they did, and this is counted as “damage” done to survivors according to this report.
The way this scenario should play out is that if a service user doesn’t like the counsellor or whomever they’ve been allocated they can ask for someone else and should be provided one with no questions asked. Instead what transphobes are angling for is a “transphobia by default” approach wherein they are never ever ever ever confronted with the existence or inclusion of trans people ever.
They do not accept transgender women as women; so you can’t either. Anyone who does becomes the subject of their harassment campaigns. Be transphobic or be harassed for not being transphobic.
And the absolute chef’s kiss cherry on the cake of Vicky Ling’s “damages done to survivors” list here? It finishes with the following line; “Neither of the women who spoke to the reviewer had used ERCC’s services personally but they had come into contact with ERCC staff online or at a meeting.”
Now I’m not saying you have to be a service-user for your complaints about the way a service is ran to be valid. Of course not. But it should probably be telling that the two complaints only come from those who haven’t used the service. Their entire basis for being in such a frenzy over this is online media and the way the people they listen to have been reporting on Mridul Wadha and her now former position as CEO of ERCC. It is not based in reality. It’s pure bigoted vibes.
After my big jump-in to the Cass Review for Novara Media where I quite rightly called how much of a shambles it was and how much it was going to be torn to shreds when people had a chance to properly read through it all I’m feeling confident enough to say we’re heading for round 2 of the Independent Report: Boogaloo.
I’ve received multiple DMs already about this report, including raising some of the issues I’ve mentioned here and many many more. I’ve also received DMs about Vicky Ling in particular who has a social media presence that appears to be following and liking tweets from dedcated anti-trans activists.
Suffice to say, it isn’t looking good for this report or those standing by it. Solidarity and love goes to Mridul Wadhwa, I’m sorry they finally forced you out and I hope one day you get justice for this.
