Transphobia: How the trans-hostile media coverage began in the UK
Where the current ‘trans panic’ originated in the UK media, its origins and the publications and journalists behind promoting trans-hostility for ideological and financial gain.
Transphobia in the UK media
The recent wave of anti-trans media in the UK was initially platformed by niche left-wing newspaper ‘Morningstar Online’. This was likely due to one of the editors being the brother of trans-hostile campaigner, Venice Allan, the organiser of the ‘We Need To Talk’ anti-trans events, which preceded the formation of some of the more recognisable anti-trans hate groups around today. News articles in the left-wing paper were predominantly opinion pieces or petition letters and were based around recruiting Labour members to anti-trans causes. Morningstar Online’s trans-hostile stance came to a head in February 2020 when they published a widely criticised transphobic cartoon depicting trans people as a crocodile in a pond of newts.
The mainstream media’s transphobic coverage began in earnest in 2017 and was spearheaded by The Times — notably journalist Janice Turner, followed soon after by Andrew Gilligan. Janice’s transphobic ‘opinion’ columns meant that ‘accuracy’ or ‘fairness’ wasn’t required, and for any ‘factual’ stories, IPSO rules allowed for minority groups to be targeted without consequence. While key journalists in many newspapers were clearly ideologically driven, other news platforms saw an opportunity for ‘clickbait’ and repurposed anti-trans stories from other publications, or started writing their own. Primary news platforms publishing trans-hostile articles were The Times, Telegraph, and the Daily Mail, but many smaller or syndicated local publications often shared the articles.
In 2019 tea uglow published a project titled “Yours Sincerely, the Fourth Estate” monitoring all articles in the UK mainstream news media covering trans topics over the space of a year. The headlines alone indicate the depth of negative rhetoric and outright transphobia being pedalled towards trans people, both individually and as a community. They have only become more frequent, more hostile, and more targeted since that time, in recent years broadening out into wider anti-LTBT rhetoric.
Even ‘left wing’ newspaper The Guardian / Observer became more trans-hostile, with an internal battle between young, junior trans-inclusive employees disagreeing with older, senior, editors and prominent columnists, leading to anti-trans columnist Suzanne Moore quitting in November 2020. There was also division between the international arms of The Guardian, which culminated in its US office writing a Guardian US Op Ed article in November 2018, criticising their UK counterparts for their transphobia. Even the BBC has become distinctively transphobic in its content, with BBC Newsnight broadcasting multiple segments targeting the NHS youth gender service GIDS, BBC Woman’s Hour, Radio 4, and even BBC News being influenced by senior ‘gender critical’ individuals within the corporation. BBC transphobia finally came to a head in 2021 with the publication of the article ‘We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women’, which was widely criticised for journalistic standards.
In November 2019, trans charity Mermaids published research in conjunction with Lancaster University on the level of trans-hostile coverage in the media around trans people and especially trans youth. The research found that there was three and a half times as many trans-hostile articles in 2018–19 compared to 2012, and that mentions of transgender children were 23 times as common in 2018–19 compared to 2012.
Why is the UK mainstream media so transphobic?
After the initial opportunism of stories in Morningstar Online, the real push of transphobia in the UK media began in right-wing newspaper The Times. This was led as an ideological project by Janice Turner, and likely supported as the target at that time was the confrontation between left-wing ‘feminists’ (as they liked to present themselves) and trans people protesting their transphobic narratives. For a right-wing newspaper, appealing to a predominantly conservative readership, it allowed for The Times to simultaneously criticise ‘the left’, ‘feminists’ and ‘the trans lobby’ from their lofty position of ‘just reporting the news’. Andrew Gilligan joined the trans-hostile reporting on trans topics in The Times, his venom undoubtedly fuelled by the IPSO complaint against his inaccurate article about trans kids charity Mermaids.
One significant, but little reported moment, was when trans woman, and ex-Times editor, Kathy O’Donnell took The Times to court in an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds that the Times workplace was trans-hostile. Dragging multiple senior editors, including Times Editor, John Witherow, from London up to an Edinburgh court, was undoubtedly going to create hostility on the side of the newspapermen. Soon after the unsuccessful court case, the Murdoch owned ‘Australian’ launched their assault on trans people, clearly following the trans-hostile model of ‘outrage clickbait’ reporting they had developed in the UK Times.
Undoubtedly noticing the (money making) clicks that The Times were getting, the right-wing Daily Mail was quick to follow suit and start generating their own trans-hostile stories. These transphobic ‘hit pieces’ were primarily written by Sanchez Manning, but also included freelance anti-trans activist journalist Joani Walsh, who also wrote exclusively transphobic articles for The Times and Telegraph, while instigating many of events she was reporting on.
The Telegraph also joined in with the trans-hostile reporting, with articles mainly scribed by Associate Editor Camilla Tominey, under whose guidance student journalist Ewan Sommerville has more recently been nurtured into specialising in transphobic writing. Whether these journalists are ideologically ‘anti-trans’ or are just propagating transphobia for the right-wing conservative readership ‘clicks’ — and subsequent advertising income — is unknown, but the net result is the same.
Surprising to many, was when The Guardian / Observer began to publish more and more trans-hostile articles. It is often assumes that their is a direct correlation between ‘left-wing’ politics and trans-inclusivity. However, embedded in much of the senior editorial staff and prominent journalists and opinion column writers was an influential cohort of second-wave ‘trans exclusionary’ feminists. Vocal anti-trans lobbyists, Suzanne Moore and Julie Bindel were regular opinion columnists writing hostile rhetoric about trans people — a mantle more recently taken up by Susanna Ruskin and Sonia Sodha.
A pattern has subsequently emerged in UK news media — Ideologically driven transphobic journalists, with access to a privileged platform of influence, have used that platform to push their transphobia. This in turn has generated outrage from trans people and their allies, which has in turn generated ‘clicks’. Senior Editors and money-making Billionaire newspaper media barons, seeing an opportunity to both appeal to their conservative readerships and bottom line, have jumped on the transphobia train and churned out more transphobia. In recent months generating transphobic headlines has also benefitted UK politicians seeking distraction from their own negative press — a strategy willingly supported by Tory party donating media oligarch owners.
The current state of transphobia in the UK media
To those who have been following the media coverage of trans topics in the UK it has most noticeably been increasing and becoming more vitriolic since 2016. The announcement of the Gender Recognition Act consultation in July 2018 super-charged the anti-trans rhetoric and active lobbying in the national UK media and led to an increase in articles on trans topics. The hostility and frequency of transphobic articles has escalated further since 2021, with the onset of politicians weaponising trans people as both a topic to appeal to their conservative base, and as a distraction tactic from their own failings. With a predominantly right-wing UK media, Conservative supporting publications have been more than happy to carry unsubstantiated and misleading articles on trans topics at the behest of Tory politicians.
13,015 (13,015) The number of articles published in the UK news media (excl. LGBT media) on trans topics between 1/7/2015–30/6/2022
154 The average number of articles published EVERY MONTH by the UK media (excl. LGBT media) on trans topics over the last 7 years.
501 The number of articles published in UK news media (excl. LGBT media) on trans topics in May 2022 — That’s over 16 articles a day.
163 The number of articles published by the Daily Mail on trans topics in May 2022 — That’s more than FIVE per DAY.
Further reading:
- Why is British media so transphobic? | The Outline
- TERF War: Transphobia In the British Media, Gender Critical Feminism and Its Effects on Trans Rights (vice.com)
- Transphobic Media Under Fire From UK Equalities Minister (globalcitizen.org)
- Eight trans and non-binary people on the UK media’s transphobia epidemic | Dazed (dazeddigital.com)
- “I think journalists sometimes forget that we’re just people”: Analysing the Effects of UK Trans Media Representation on Trans Audiences, by Rhianna Humphrey, University of Glasgow, UK
- 9 in 10 believe UK media’s reporting on so-called ‘trans debate’ is harmful (gaytimes.co.uk)
- The BBC and the Times Accused of ‘Moral Panic’ Against Trans Community (insider.com)
- Transphobia Project uses data visualisation to zoom in on outlets that spread biased transgender content | Media news (journalism.co.uk)
This is the fifth of a series of five articles examining not just what transphobia is, but also how more and more people are becoming sucked into visible and aggressive transphobic lobbying to the point of extremism. You can read the full series of articles here:
- Transphobia is increasing — we need to understand it better to fight it.
- Transphobia: How people are becoming radicalised online.
- Transphobia: How the ecosystem of UK and US anti-trans hate works.
- Transphobia: The development of anti-trans hate groups in the UK.
- Transphobia: How the trans-hostile media coverage began in the UK.
Some background
My name is Helen, some of you will know me from Twitter as @mimmymum — a cis feminist, the mum of a trans son, and a fierce trans ally. I’ve been monitoring trans discourse on social media, mainstream media, and elsewhere for the last six years, and have had many conversations with trans people, experts and allies over the years on multiple topics impacting trans people — all with the overarching intention of making the world a better place for trans and gender-diverse people. During my conversations, study and musings I have often wondered how transphobes actually become radicalised into transphobia, as a prelude to what can be done to stop this seeming tsunami of transphobic hate growing in multiple western English-speaking countries. This, and subsequent articles, are my attempt at answering that question. This is not an academic paper, but one borne out of informed observation, critical questioning and an interest in what makes people tick.
