Ebury imprint BBC Books has dropped author Gareth Roberts from its forthcoming Doctor Who short story collection following comments he made about transgender people on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n Roberts, who has written several episodes of the show and previous books, had been commissioned to write a story for Doctor Who: The Target Storybook<\/em>. But he revealed in a blogpost<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that, once his involvement was made public, fans of the show \u201cagitated for my removal\u201d while other contributors threatened to withdraw.<\/span><\/p>\n He wrote: \u201cBBC Books immediately folded to these demands, and I was informed that although I would be paid my story would not be published, as they judged \u2013 wrongly, in my opinion \u2013 that a potential boycott would make the book \u2018economically unviable\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Roberts said the opposition centered around two tweets he wrote in September 2017, saying: \u201cI love how trannies choose names like Munroe, Paris and Chelsea. It\u2019s never Julie or Bev is it?\u201d, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s almost like a clueless gayboy\u2019s idea of a glamorous lady. But of course it\u2019s definitely not that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Commenting on the tweets, Roberts said:\u00a0\u201cThese tweets in September 2017 were cheerful vulgarity. Like every other reasonable person I deplore and condemn any violence, intimidation or discrimination against any person for their beliefs or for how they present themselves, or indeed any other reason.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ebury confirmed his contribution had been axed from the title, which is due to be published in October.<\/span><\/p>\n A spokesman said: \u201cEbury Publishing will no longer feature Gareth Roberts\u2019 work in the soon to be published Doctor Who: The Target Storybook<\/em>. Comments made by the author on social media using offensive language about the transgender community have caused upset to Doctor Who fans and conflict with our values as a publisher.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of those who spoke out against his inclusion was fellow contributor Susie Day, who tweeted she had told the publisher \u201cif he was in, I was out\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n