Daily Mail, Shape Up Your Coverage of LGBT Issues
All primary school teacher Lucy Meadows ever wanted, she told her friend in an email, was to be herself. But after a columnist for the Daily Mail implied in a national publication that her transgender identity made her unfit to teach, she was hounded by the press.
In March 2013, she committed what appeared to be suicide -- and many trans activists feel that the Mail's coverage of Meadows, along with other media pressure, must have contributed to her death.
This is not the first time that activists have taken the Mail to task about its coverage of transgender people. In September 2011, for example, writer James Slack referred to transgender and intersex people using scare quotes, as though to imply their gender identity was illegitimate.
It is high time that the Mail enact a comprehensive editorial policy that stresses sensitivity and compassion rather than sensationalism and fear-mongering, particularly with regard to the transgender community. Tell them to shape up their coverage of LGBT issues immediately!
I am writing to express my disappointment with Richard Littlejohn's coverage of Lucy Meadows, the primary school teacher who committed suicide three months after Littlejohn's article was published.
Although Lucy did not leave any indication of why she chose to kill herself, many transgender activists feel that Littlejohn's article, in which he claimed that her transition would have a "devastating effect" on her pupils, directly led to her suicide.
Regardless, this isn't the first time your staff has demonstrated insensitivity to transgender issues. I am writing to urge you to immediately enact a strong editorial policy that stresses sensitivity and compassion with regard to the LGBT community rather than sensationalism and fearmongering.
Your deletion of Littlejohn's article from your site following Meadows's death shows a willingness to change -- please follow through.
