Sarah Brown (UK politician)

"Sarah" Brown born male 1976, is a transgender activist and Liberal Democrat politician in England, UK, who identifies as a "transwoman". He was the Cambridge City Councillor for Petersfield ward between 2010 and 2014,serving as Executive Councillor for Community Wellbeing since 2013 and currently also serves as a member of the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats executive.

He has publicly described himself as having "fragile mental health".

Brown, who claims to be a "poly, trans, lesbian" is notorious for telling a woman on Twitter to “suck my formaldehyde pickled balls”.

He is an adviser of Stonewall UK.

Views and Policies

Pornography

In Autumn 2013 he made a speech to the Lib Dem Party Conference, 2013, opposing Internet Porn Filters, introduced to try to safeguard children. He uploaded it to YouTube and wrote:

Sarah Brown Published on Sep 16, 2013 "This is the speech I gave to the Liberal Democrat party conference, opposing Baroness' Benjamin's motion for mandatory filtered Internet, so-called porn filters."

Sadism and Bondage

In 2013 Brown used his position as a councillor to encourage a BDSM group named Peer Rope Cambridge to hold a series of classes in sadism and bondage at a village hall near Cambridge. The meetings were discontinued after residents queried whether this was a suitable use for a community space also used by children and financed with public money. It appears that Brown not only defended the use, but took part personally, in the guise of "Maid Sarah". After the meetings were cancelled Brown tweeted that he was “disappointed” and added that he had taken the lead in this use of a public building. “Tea and a bit of spanking, so what?” He insisted that the group was promoting “safe” sexual activities albeit “alternative” ones.

Adverts were published for an event to include spanking, talks by an expert in leather whips, a flogging "workshop" and "kink on a budget", served with tea and cakes by "Maid Sarah". The trustees of Trumpington Village Hall said they believed their venue had been booked "under false pretences". "The booking did not fully state the activities undertaken," they said.

Advocacy of Illegal Drugs

In 2014 Brown said on Twitter that if there are men who wish to transition to "women" by taking the female hormone oestrogen, but could not get it prescribed legally, he and other trans-activists should find ways of "stockpiling" it and supplying to them illegally. This led to an official complaint being lodged against him.

Opposed to Free Speech and Women's Rights

Brown has fiercely denounced women's groups who do not include biological men in their events or categorize then as female. He calls these women "Terfs" and often repeats that they (unlike his bondage group) should not have the right to hold meetings in public buildings. As a member of Cambridge City Council, he urged it to adopt a change of policy so that any male who "identifies" as female would be allowed into women's areas and amenities, including toilets, gyms, changing rooms, swimming pools, and sports events. This policy is not in accord with UK law. Brown called one person who disagreed with him about this "smegma".

Nervous Breakdown

After losing his seat on Cambridge City Council, in 2014, Brown seemed to be somewhat distressed. He publicly blamed a lot of other people, denounced them for harassing him, and it was at this time that he issued the famous tweet:

Later he blamed his outburst on his fragile mental state in the wake of the election defeat. He wrote on his blog: "My already fragile mental health collapsed. I went into severe anxiety and depression. I locked my Twitter down, I started to miss some scheduled meetings: ‘Cllr Brown sends her apologies, she is unwell’ was the line. “The reality: Cllr Brown was curled up under his bed sheet, tranquillised up to his eyeballs, terrified, crying and barely in a position to feed himself, let alone attend a committee meeting.”

Many Tweets followed in which he offered details of the anti-depressant medication he now claimed to be taking.

The allegations that he had received anonymous letters or had his Email hacked are not supported by any evidence e.g. documents, police reports or investigations.

Social Media Activity

Brown often uses Twitter to air his views and opinions. Here are some examples.

With disarming candor he has described himself as a "eunuch":

He gives his frank opinions on who should be nominated for awards, particularly himself.

Apparently, he thinks he is a positive role model.

Victimhood

Brown often claims to be one of a persecuted minority, downtrodden and excluded, whose lives are an ordeal of perpetual injustice. However articles and blogposts reveal that he earns enough money from his transgender fame to own a yacht.

Election Failure

Brown stood again twice as Liberal Democrat candidate for Petersfield in 2018, in May and again in September. He was not elected.

Hounding of Battered Wife

Brown together with one of his partners, Zoe O'Connell, another man who identifies as a woman, hounded a woman out of her post in the Libdem party and got her no-platformed for saying that men should not be allowed in refuges for female victims of domestic abuse. They accused Natalie B., a mother of two who fled a violent former partner, of “dangerous transphobia” for saying that opening up refuges to anyone who said that they were female could put women at risk. After being bullied on social media, the woman was forced to appear before a disciplinary hearing of the party and accused of “troublesome views”.

When asked by journalists to comment, Brown and O’Connell denied all knowledge of the case and O'Connell denied making the complaint. However, his name appears on the correspondence shown by his victim to journalists.