The UN has praised trans activist Katie Neeves as an “inspiration” for conversations about women’s rights in New York, despite her confessions to stealing and wearing her sister’s panties as a child.
The world body told DailyMail.com that Neeves, a British male-to-female activist, could take “practical ideas” from its Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which runs from March 11 to 22. .
Neeves has revealed his trans history and how, as a child, he “secretly dressed in my sister’s clothes” because it “felt so good,” even when he felt “embarrassed and self-loathing” because “I was dirty.”
It is a hotly contested issue whether trans women receive the same treatment as biological women.
Katie Neeves used to be called Martin and, as a child, she wore her sister’s underwear because she wanted to look more like a girl.
Neeves announced that she would represent Britain at the UN meeting on women’s rights on X/Twitter.
Some feminists say they are actually men who should not be allowed in spaces reserved for women, especially women’s bathrooms, prisons, sports teams and coveted leadership positions.
Neeves will participate this month in the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women
The UN told DailyMail.com that Neeves was a “guest attendee” of the 68th annual event and did not represent the world body.
“Katie is one of over 6,000 invited attendees from the UK who will be attending CSW68 virtually, where they will listen and learn from guests from around the world,” the email said.
“They will bring practical ideas and inspiration to their organizations and communities in the UK.”
The commission is the UN’s largest annual talk on gender equality and seeks to address why women still earn less than men and the 10.3 percent of women languishing in extreme poverty globally.
Neeves, formerly known as Martin, announced last month that she would be one of the UK’s delegates to the event and said she was happy to promote “gender equality and women’s empowerment”.
She advocates for transgender rights in the UK as a so-called “ambassador” for her charity Cool2BTrans while continuing her male-to-female hormone therapy, which she began in 2018.
As a child, Neeves said he “secretly dressed in my sister’s clothes” because “they looked so good to him,” even when he felt “shame and self-loathing” because “they were dirty.”
Some of Neeves’ social media followers congratulated her on her place at the UN, but others reacted angrily.
One user, Melindi Scott, said Neeves “should be completely embarrassed for taking a woman’s position just so he can explain himself.”
Another criticized the UN, calling it a “corrupt, lying and misogynistic organization.”
‘If you want trans people at the UN, let them represent themselves, but stop misleading women!’ the user posted.
‘Of the millions of women in the UK not a single one could be found qualified to defend women’s rights!’
Neeves has been criticized in the past for her accounts of her childhood confusion about her sexual identity, which she says began when she was just three or four years old.
In a video from a diversity training workshop that emerged in 2022, Neeves revealed how she used to steal her sister’s ‘panties’, a British term for women’s underwear, and wear them.
Katie, pictured two days before her transition, is now taking male-to-female hormones.
“Growing up, I used to secretly dress up in my sister’s clothes whenever I got the chance,” Neeves says in the video.
‘And every time I did it, I felt so good. But then those feelings of being right were quickly overtaken by feelings of guilt, shame, and self-loathing. Because what I was doing was wrong, it was dirty, it was bad and it wasn’t what respectable people did.’
The UN has struggled with how to accommodate trans people in a 193-nation organization that includes modern Western nations, as well as more conservative and traditional regions, such as Africa and the Middle East, with very different attitudes toward LGBTQ+ issues.
A U.N. panel tasked with drafting global guidelines on transgender health met for the first time last month amid controversy for being one-sided and featuring only experts from one side of a heated debate.
It also included trans activists Teddy Cook, Florence Ashley and Cianán Russell, who faced criticism for everything from racy social media posts to harsh views on giving puberty blockers to children.