GenderGP founder claims stopping men from competing in women’s sports is like the Holocaust
Dr Helen Webberley faces online criticism after footage shows her likening athletics sex-testing to Nazi persecution
Dr Helen Webberley, founder of the transgender healthcare service GenderGP, is facing criticism after footage circulated online showing her in front of an image of Auschwitz, comparing sex-verification rules in women’s sport to the treatment of Jews under the Nazis.
In the clip, Webberley says: “Ethnic cleansing – that’s what this is. Just like wartime, where you had to queue up and prove that you were pure enough to live. And now we have to queue up and have a test to see whether we’re female enough to take part in female sports.”
Several social media users condemned the analogy, noting its use of Holocaust imagery. Gender-critical campaigner James Esses wrote that Webberley had previously posed “in front of an image of a Nazi death camp” while discussing sex-testing in athletics, adding: “She belongs in prison.”
Writer Penny Montrose said Webberley’s comparisons were “offensive” and “trivialising genocide”, arguing that her rhetoric showed a “dangerous lack of judgement”.
Another commentator, Hermione Gingold, criticised a repost featuring Webberley “with a backdrop of Auschwitz”, describing the comparison to sports rules as “utterly beyond reason”.
Holocaust education groups have repeatedly warned against invoking the Shoah in modern political disputes, stressing that such analogies distort history and cause deep offence to Jewish communities.
Webberley, who became a high-profile figure in transgender healthcare through GenderGP and frequent media appearances, no longer holds a licence to practise medicine in the UK. The General Medical Council withdrew it in July 2024 after she chose not to sit the required revalidation exam. She remains on the medical register and continues to focus on advocacy rather than clinical practice.
Webberley has not commented publicly on the recent posts.
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