A COUNCIL cartoon depicted a transgender person as a miserable man taking off a wig.

Campaigners said the consultation on library cuts was “offensive and discriminatory”.

Residents were asked to tick their gender, with a smiling man and woman as “male” and “female”.

However an unhappy man taking off a wig was “transgender” in the online document from Essex County Council.

Save our Libraries Essex campaigner Liz Miles said: “It’s a shockingly negative and inaccurate image.”

She added: “Its negative impact is increased by being put alongside positive photographs of a smiling man and woman”.

Bea Marshall, who gives fashion advice to transgender people, said the council was treating the “marginalised and misunderstood community as a joke”.

The council, which has removed the image, said the document was provided by a firm which works with residents with learning disabilities.

A spokesman added: “We are sorry for any offence caused.”