transgender activist
The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...
and former politician. She was a rising star in the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
and its equalities spokesperson. In 2018, her father, who had been her election agent, was convicted of raping a child and she was no-fault suspended during an investigation into safeguarding failures by the party. She subsequently joined the Liberal Democrats in 2019 and was suspended after tweets appeared on her fiance's account stating he fantasized about children having sex, which she attributed to hacking.
Knight later worked for Reddit as an administrator. In March 2021, a moderator was banned for linking to an article which mentioned her. Approximately 200 subreddits went private in protest of the ban and Knight's employment, arguing she hadn't been vetted properly due to her father and fiance. Reddit's CEO issued a statement that the ban had been the result of an overzealous automated moderating system meant to prevent doxxing and that she was no longer employed by the company.
She has been subject to harassment from anti-trans activists who have attempted to use her to link trans women and transgender rights with child abuse.
Early life
Knight was diagnosed with
autism
Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...
when she was 4. She started identifying as a girl around the age of 10. Knight and her two younger siblings were taken into care in 2013 after social services expressed concerns about her parents. She was educated at Lewis Charlton Learning Centre.
In February 2013, Knight - then 15 and affiliated with
Anonymous
Anonymous may refer to:
* Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown
** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author
* Anonym ...
- was arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a
cyberattack
A cyberattack (or cyber attack) occurs when there is an unauthorized action against computer infrastructure that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of its content.
The rising dependence on increasingly complex and inte ...
on the Bull Ring website in protest of tax evasion. No charges were brought and the case was eventually dropped.
Knight came out publicly as trans in 2014 at her school's graduation prom when she was 16; The headmaster said she wasn't allowed to wear a dress because it was "unnecessarily attention-seeking" and would make the school "look stupid" but allowed her to following complaints from her parents. She has stated that her transgender identity was questioned because she was autistic by her extended family when she came out and later by the NHS, who required her to get autism diagnosis to be re-confirmed over six months before being referred to a gender services clinic.
Knight then attended
Henley College Coventry
Henley College was a further education college in the city of Coventry, England. Established in 1964, it was one of three further education colleges within the city boundaries, alongside Coventry College and Hereward College before its merger ...
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
) officer. Knight lived with her mother in Coventry in 2018, while studying for a B.A. in
philosophy, politics and economics
Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...
at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
.
Career
LGBT activism
In 2015, Knight was the LGBTQ Officer for
Henley College Coventry
Henley College was a further education college in the city of Coventry, England. Established in 1964, it was one of three further education colleges within the city boundaries, alongside Coventry College and Hereward College before its merger ...
; she protested the college's censoring of websites such as
Birmingham Pride
Birmingham Pride is a weekend-long LGBTQ+ festival held annually in the Gay Village, Hurst Street, Birmingham, England, over the spring bank holiday weekend. Birmingham Pride is the UK's largest two-day gay pride festival.
It usually featur ...
, which were considered "Gay or Lesbian or Bisexual Interest" by the college web blocker. Knight became a member of Stonewall's Trans Advisory Group in 2015, and was an organiser of Coventry Pride in 2016 and 2017.
Knight campaigned for reform the
Gender Recognition Act 2004
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows adults in the United Kingdom who have gender dysphoria to change their legal sex. It came into effect on 4 April 2005.
Background
The act was dr ...
to make it easier for transgender and non-binary minors to get legal gender recognition to avoid misgendering and difficulties at school. She has compared the struggles trans people face in the UK to the struggles gay people faced under
Section 28
Section 28 refers to a part of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated that Local government in the United Kingdom, local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with t ...
with trans people portrayed as sexual predators.
In 2016, after a
Transport for London
Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom.
TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...
(TfL) helpline employee told Knight that she "didn't sound like a Miss", she successfully campaigned to get TfL to investigate the incident and to use
gender-neutral language
Gender-neutral language or gender-inclusive language is language that avoids reference towards a particular sex or gender. In English, this includes use of nouns that are not gender-specific to refer to roles or professions, formation of phrases i ...
in announcements, avoiding phrases such as " ladies and gentlemen".
Knight has campaigned against the deportation of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and criticized
British Airways
British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport.
The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
' role in them.
Green Party
Knight joined the
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...
in November 2014. She was the chair of LGBTIQA+ Greens ( LGBT, plus intersex, queer, asexual, and other) between 2015 and 2017. Knight became the party's equality spokesperson in 2016. According to the Green Party, Knight was the only trans spokesperson for a UK political party. Knight stood for
Coventry City Council
Coventry City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the city of Coventry in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Coventry has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasi ...
elections as a member of the Green Party in February 2016 and May 2016.
In April 2017, Knight helped co-found the Global Greens LGBT+ Network alongside colleagues from
Die Grünen The Greens or Greens may refer to:
Current political parties
*The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria
*Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens''
* Greens of Andorra
* The Greens (Benin)
*The Greens (Bulgaria)
* Greens of Bosnia and He ...
,
Groen
Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch people, Dutch origin, meaning ''green''.Taiwan Tree Party, and Taiwan Green Party.
In 2017, Knight was elected to the Greens' national executive committee. In July 2017, Knight was the Green candidate for Coventry South. She received 1.3% of the vote share, with 604 votes. Knight stood in the 2018 party election to be deputy leader, which closed at the end of August. Knight chose her father as her
election agent
An election agent is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is sent by those running the election. The term is most used in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some ...
Knight's father, David Challenor, became a member of the Green Party in December 2015 when Knight gifted him a membership. The same year he was reported to the West Midlands Police for raping and torturing a 10 year old girl. He was charged in court in November 2016 and on the same day Knight alerted the chair of the Green's national executive committee and one of its PR chiefs that he had been charged with sexual offenses but neglected to mention he was a party member. She did not know the full details of the charges. In August 2018, Knight's father was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the crime. After her father's sentencing, Knight stood down from the Green Party's deputy leadership election, releasing a statement that she was horrified and saddened by his crimes and had only learnt the details of them just before his conviction.
Knight was consequently suspended from the party on a no-fault basis, and the party launched an
inquest
An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a cor ...
into possible safeguarding failures as her father was allowed to act as her election agent after having been charged. In September 2018, Knight resigned from the Green Party citing transphobia and criticizing former party leader
Caroline Lucas
Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parli ...
for meeting with
Woman's Place UK
Woman's Place UK (WPUK) was a British political advocacy group founded in 2017. The group was opposed to gender self-identification for transgender people in the UK, and has advocated restricting access to women-only spaces on the basis of "se ...
, who Knight described as a "hate group". She denied this was due to the investigation.
Verita, the firm hired to perform the inquiry, found in January 2019 that she had committed a "serious error of judgement" in appointing her father as her campaign manager though she was in difficult circumstances and not given "training and support". It found the colleagues she alerted had "closed the matter off too quickly and should have followed up more" and failed to inform the local party. The report recommended the party update its code of conduct, review its safeguarding policies, and speak to the police department about whether it should have notified them of the charges.
Liberal Democrats
In October 2018, she joined the Liberal Democrats, becoming the Diversity Officer for
Coventry
Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
. She was suspended from the party in July 2019 following an investigation after tweets appeared on her partner's account stating he fantasized about children having sex with other children and adults. Knight told ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' that her partner's account had been hacked and that she and him condemned the messages in them.
She stated she would be quitting politics by December following abuse and harassment.
Reddit
Knight began working as an unpaid moderator for subreddits such as r/lgbt, then did contract work, for the Reddit Public Access Network, and was hired as an administrator by
Reddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
. In 2020, she helped write an open letter to Reddit's administrators about anti-LGBT harassment.
In March 2021, Reddit banned a moderator for the r/ukpolitics
subreddit
Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
for sharing a '' Spectator Magazine'' article mentioning Knight. The r/ukpolitics sub went private, followed by over 200 subreddits in protest of both the bans and of the hiring of Knight, arguing she was not suitable due to her hiring of her father. Reddit reversed the ban and posted a statement from their CEO
Steve Huffman
Steve Huffman (born ), also known by his Reddit username spez (), is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, which ranks 9th in the top 20 websites in the world as of February 2025. He also co-fou ...
that Knight had been "the target of harassment and
doxxing
Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the Internet and without their consent. Historically, the term has been used to refer to both the aggregati ...
" earlier that month and Reddit had activated an automated moderation rule which had been too broad. He stated that Knight had been inadequately vetted before being hired, was no longer employed at the company, and that they would review their relevant internal processes.
During the Reddit controversy, she received transphobic abuse on Twitter, anti-trans activist
Graham Linehan
Graham George Linehan (; born May 1968) is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms ''Father Ted'' (1995–1998), '' Black Books'' (2000–2004), and ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), and has wri ...
widely publicized her employment at Reddit using her deadname and derogatory language.
Personal life
She is married to Nathaniel Knight and moved to the United States of America following her suspension from the Liberal Democrats. Since coming out, she has been attacked on social media, including barrages of offensive tweets. Anti-trans activists have harassed Knight and attempted to use her story to link the
transgender rights movement
The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...
and
trans women
A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...
with child abuse.
In May 2018,
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
published an article that quoted writer Miranda Yardley describing Knight as a "man". Knight said that the BBC did not contact her about the article before its publication, though following readers' complaints she was asked to comment, and her response was added to the article.