LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — “Sex-swap scientist gored by stag” read one UK tabloid headline after a noted Scotland scientist was hit in the neck at night by the antlers of a deer that had wandered into a yard.
Never mind that trans woman Kate Stone nearly died and was flown to a hospital to undergo 10 hours of surgery, the media went on a heyday, hell-bent on finding and publishing personal details of her previous life. Other headlines included “Deer spears sex-swap Kate” and “Sex swap scientist in fight for life” — the kind of sensationalism that led Stone to complain to the UK’s Press Complaints Commission (PCC).
Following the complaint and investigation, six newspapers admitted to violating the discrimination clause of the PCC editors’ code which states a person’s trans status should be avoided unless relevent to the story. All papers have since pulled their stories.
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This may be a landmark ruling since a number of these papers (Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, the Sun, Scottish Sun, Daily Record and Daily Mirror) often or routinely exploit trans people. Now they are on record agreeing that their actions were inappropriate.
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LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
Categories: Policy, Administrative, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, Transphobia, exploitation, dehumanizing, violence, hate
this is the first I heard of this and i live in the UK, perhaps you get to hear about UK stuff in the USA before we do?
This story reminds me of the old saying, “Today’s newspaper is tomorrows toilet paper”. Unfortunately there’s a certain type of ilk that is sought for as a news editor for these rags. I suspect that that same type of ilk will be continue to be hired as an editor, regardless of the reprimand.