Driving school accused in sex-change instructor row [View All]

A Muslim husband from South Yorkshire has threatened to sue an all-female driving school after he discovered his wife's driving instructor used to be a man.

The man, from Sheffield, booked a lesson for his wife with Laugh n Pass, an all-female instructor driving school which operates in West and South Yorkshire.

But the wife cut short her two-hour lesson and Joanne Dixon, the school's owner later received a phone call from the husband accusing her of being racist and claiming she had sent a male instructor disguised as a woman because he was a Muslim.

Mrs Dixon says she is giving her full backing to the instructor in question, Emma Sherdley - formerly a married dad of two called Andrew but now legally a woman.

A popular and respected instructor, Ms Sherdley has 32 female pupils on her books and Mrs Dixon says no one has raised problems over her past before.

"Emma is a popular and very well-respected instructor," she said.

"That man accused us of being racist, yet his attitude towards Emma showed prejudice of the very worst kind."

Ms Sherdley, 42, of Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, has a birth certificate and a "gender recognition certificate" to prove her legal status as a woman, although she is still waiting for final surgery to make her transition from male to female physically complete.

She says that none of her other pupils have had a problem with her sex change and she found the man's complaints "hurtful, offensive and deeply upsetting."

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Driving-school-accused-in-sexchange.4102140.jp