Open Letter supporting Protest Transphobia @ The Observer

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To the Board of the Guardian Media Group and editors of The Guardian and The Observer,

 

Following Julie Burchill's transphobic article of Sunday January 13th, we as allies and members of the trans community are lending our support to those protesting at the observer's offices on January 17th and the companion protest in Manchester.

 

We seek a full apology from the paper, and reassurance that they will take steps to ensure that the Guardian Media Group's publications will never again be used as a platform for hate speech.

 

We are aware of the Observer’s withdrawal of Burchill’s article from their website, but feel that this response does not give adequate reassurance that the paper will not publish transphobic content in future. Furthermore, we do not feel that the paper has adequately acknowledged the role of transphobia in the media in perpetuating and erasing the day to day discrimination and violence which we as a community face as a consequence of such attitudes as those expressed in Burchill’s article. Instead, the paper has opted for an erasure of the incident without addressing its cause.

 

Given that The Guardian Media Group has published such transphobic content in the past, Burchill's piece is only the most recent within a number of articles which have employed transphobic language to target the trans community. We are concerned that with this history and the events of late there is a culture of active transphobia within sectors the Guardian Media Group.

 

While we agree that everyone has the right to free speech it cannot be denied that online, print and other media outlets have an enormous influence in forming public opinions and attitudes and therefore a responsibility to use that influence for the public good. While the definition of what is in the public good may understandably differ from publication to publication it must surely be possible to achieve this without advocating irrational hatred.

 

To publish articles such as Ms Burchill's perpetuates the view it is acceptable to view trans people as nothing more than 'trannies' and ignores and strips us of our inherent humanity. Trans people are siblings, children, spouses and parents. Trans people have hobbies, professions and interests but every article published or TV show broadcast that shows more concern with who we were than who we are perpetuates the idea that everyone from colleagues to strangers in the street has the right to ask questions about our birth names and medical history and the assumption of that right removes trans people's right to privacy. The mocking of trans people as 'she-males' gives permission to others to shout those words in the street and as much as we would wish it otherwise there are people who will turn those violent words into violent actions.

 

This stripping of our humanity and dignity has a very real effect on trans people's lives. Hundreds of trans people are killed each year worldwide and many others will take their own lives. Others will make the attempt or spend years dealing with depression and other mental health issues as a direct result of transphobic violence and abuse. Recently thousands of stories were shared on twitter of patients being called abominations, sexual assaults, refusal of treatment, a patient being left to bleed profusely in A&E, waiting a year or more for even the most basic of treatment for their condition. That these stories on the #transdocfail hashtag received so little attention from the media would seem to be concrete proof that trans people are viewed as less deserving of help and that this is in some way justifiable, even when the medical help they seek is utterly unrelated to them being trans.

 

The vast majority of trans people have no desire to be viewed as victims we simply want to be treated with the basic respect and dignity that everyone should be entitled to expect. Trans people wish to read our newspapers and watch TV without worrying that we will stumble across another journalist belittling us or another screenwriter viewing us as nothing more than a quick laugh. The increasing numbers of trans journalists found within the Guardian Media Group and other outlets and the BBC's Trans Comedy Award are encouraging signs of change and a more inclusive future but while trans people are ridiculed and belittled in major media this change will come far too slowly and far too late for thousands of us.

 

Again the trans community does not and has never sought to curtail freedom of speech and any newspaper or broadcaster who wishes engage with us positively will always find trans people ready and willing to do so but we cannot and will not condone or ignore unbridled and unrestrained abuse whoever it comes from.

 Yours,

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