Link to the original article here
Although I am not the named complainant whose privacy was infringed in the article, I would like this complaint to be considered from someone
whose life particularly affected by the publication of this and similar
articles. I have a material interest in this publication and it, and similar
articles negatively affect me personally in my day-to-day life on a daily
basis. As such I argue that it should be given consideration at a level close
to that of Miss Meadows complaint herself.
The following are the clauses in the
editors' code of practice which Mr Littlejohn and the Daily Mail have breached
"All members of the press have a duty
to maintain the highest professional standards."
"It is essential that an agreed code
be honoured not only to the letter but in the full spirit. It should not be
interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights
of the individual"
"The Press must take care not to
publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including
pictures."
"The Press, whilst free to be partisan,
must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact."
"Privacy
i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his
or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including
digital communications.
ii) Editors will be expected to justify
intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be
taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information."
This article failed to uphold high
professional standards by any measure whatsoever. In particular it failed to
publish accurate information about children's responses to transgender people.
There are no studies which suggest that the presence of trans people cause
children any problems whatsoever. My own published, peer-reviewed research
(attachment 1) shows that around 80% of trans people knew they were trans
before they left primary school, they have only been troubled by others' -
normally teachers or other children's parents - failure to accept them as
trans.
My paper's findings have subsequently been
supported by Riley, Clemson, Sitharthan & Diamond (2012) "Surviving a
Gender Variant Childhood: The views of transgender adults on the needs of
gender variant children and their parents"
(http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/biblio/articles/2010to2014/2012-surviving-gender-variant-childhood.html)
Not only that but Brill & Pepper (2008)
The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Professionals and Families provide strong
evidence that trans people are unproblematically accepted in their new gender.
Hinton, K. (2008) “A transgender story:
from birth to secondary school”. In Invisible boundaries: addressing
sexualities equalities in children’s worlds DePalma R. and E. Atkinson (eds)
has shown how children in a Roman Catholic primary school accepted a
transgender child unproblematically despite, at that time having no support or
advice organisations to turn to as there are today.
In addition the following videos show that
transgender children are easily accepted by their peers;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S5usRgY720
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AelO2L4HneE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mYvj6bEpQM
My own studies are additionally proceeding
involving transgender children in their schools as participants, only because
of the threat of their exposure to the media by newspapers like the Daily Mail
and correspondents like Mr Littlejohn in particular, I am having to work very
hard to ensure that my research participants are kept out of the reach of the
media and that they and their schools are anonymised. However I can confirm
that these children's peers accepted them unproblematically.
In addition I taught in a primary school
where, in 2004, we had a transgender child who transitioned unproblematically
from male to female without any press publicity and with no problems from other
children in the school, she has now successfully finished her secondary
education.
In Mr Littlejohn's article he strongly
infers that children will be upset and confused by the presence of a
transgender teacher, yet I personally know a number of transgender teachers
(who have very skillfully and successfully been able to keep their transitions
out of the media) who have not had any problem with children in primary
schools. I know of openly transgender primary school supply teachers who cause
the children no stress and who have constantly been re-employed by a large
number of primary schools. I myself, an openly transgender woman have visited a
number primary schools to give diversity training with no problems.
Yet by carefully reading Mr Littlejohn's
article it is clear that all he is reporting on are the fears, neuroses or
biases of one parent who reported that his child was troubled by it. Yet anyone
who has had any experience of parents knows that this parent is clearly causing
this child's upset himself, not Miss Meadows.
"Parent Wayne Cowie said the news had
left his ten-year-old son worried and confused."
Yet Mr Littlejohn, from the say-so of one
individual, suggests that all children will be troubled by this.
"The school shouldn’t be allowed to
elevate its ‘commitment to diversity and equality’ above its duty of care to
its pupils and their parents.
It should be protecting pupils from some of
the more, er, challenging realities of adult life, not forcing them down their
throats."
Yet his assumptions demonstrate clearly
that he has failed to properly research the subject before publishing this
article. My own research and that of Riley et al, clearly demonstrates that
this is not an issue relating to adult life, being transgender is an issue for
children, since the overwhelming majority of trans people realise they are
trans before they leave primary school.
Here also Mr Littlejohn has failed to keep
fact an opinion clearly seperated; there is a wealth of research demonstrating
that children accept trans people very easily, especially primary school
children, it is adults who have the problem. Mr Littlejohn has failed in his
duty as a journalist to do the most basic research, research which would have
contradicted what he published in his article. This is not merely bad
journalism, it is a breach of the code both in spirit and letter, as the
preamble explicitly states. He has given the impression that children become
confused and stressed by the presence of a transgender person, however this is
simply not the case. He has, as such breached the letter of the code and
breached the spirit of the code also, both of which are important.
This is an important issue for transgender
people because it is articles like Mr Littlejohn's, coupled with the Daily
Mail's obsession with transgender people (Trans Media Watch has documented
dozens, if not hundreds of articles about trans people), which result in many
transgender children, and their parents, being fearful of coming out at school.
This is something which actively harms their education because of the internal
stress it causes. However, as a transgender teacher who has had to leave
teaching in order to come out as trans, I know that it harms this group of
people also. I have spoken to a number of trans primary school teachers who
have either not come out as teachers or have experienced discrimination,
largely by senior management or parents as the result of coming out as trans.
Articles such as this, which breach an
individual's right to privacy are effectively bullying trans people not to come
out. Miss Meadows privacy has been breached in an unjustifiable way. Here I can
anticipate the editor of the Daily Mail's response that "Account will be
taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information", since
Miss Meadows let it be known in the school newsletter that she was changing
gender. However, this defence is simply not sustainable. The circulation of the
school newsletter was intended for parents of children in that school only and
was clearly included in such a way which asserts that she did not wish a huge
amount of publicity. In effect Miss Meadows was doing what she needed to to to
inform parents and pupils. This is something all teachers have to do, people
who transition in other jobs do this also but usually do not have to do so to
such a large number of people who are their clients.
So Mr Littlejohn's article, and the Daily
Mail's intrusion into Miss Meadows' life at what is clearly a particularly
sensitive time cannot be justified either in terms of her own public
disclosures or the public interest. In fact people such as myself and other
transgender teachers would like to have these issues discussed in the media,
but they do not need to involve intruding on the lives of trans people to do
that. This is an issue which can easily be covered without invasions of
privacy, as such there can be no public interest defence for this invasion of
privacy.
The publication of this article has occured
shortly after the publication of Leveson, yet it is written as if Leveson had
not happened. This suggests that the press is returning to its old ways very
quickly. If the newspaper industry's own proposals for its own self regulation
are to be credible then this article needs to be censured by the PCC. Failure
to act, and to act quickly and decisively in this instance will seriously
undermine any claims the industry has to being able to regulate itself and will
represent evidence that the proposed body will allow newspapers to continue in the
way they did prior to the News of the World scandals.
