everylimb:

everylimb:

A transgender employee of The Guardian – which once called itself the “world’s leading liberal voice” – has resigned accusing the newspaper in an email to staff of being “an incredibly transphobic organisation”.

In a cutting resignation letter sent last month, the employee said the paper “fundamentally not only stands against my own values but also against what I am”. A second staff member resigned weeks later, also citing the “harm” they say the newspaper is doing to trans people.

Following the leak of the email to BuzzFeed News, the trans employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she felt complicit in the newspaper’s “transphobic” reporting by continuing to work there, and revealed the damaging effect the Guardian’s coverage of transgender people has had on her wellbeing. This included fear of using the women’s toilet at work.

…

For Victoria, the turning point came in October 2018 when the Guardian published what became a notorious editorial – a leader article setting out its official position on trans rights – which, it said, “collide” with women’s rights and put women at risk. This was despite LGBT organisations and many prominent feminists and women’s groups asserting the opposite.

But Victoria’s immediate concern was that she had to go to work the next day, knowing what her employer’s publicly-stated position was on her. “It suddenly became real,” she said, before characterising her thought process that morning: “I’m entering this building with people who are denying my humanity.”

Victoria said that when she first transitioned, years ago, “I would be freaked out about toilets and would walk in very quickly, just run to the stall and run back,” but following the article written by colleagues, “I started doing that in the Guardian.”

She raised concerns about the editorial with her line manager who promised to take it further, but, Victoria said, “I never heard anything more from it.” The daily morning conference would have also provided an opportunity to respond to the editorial but Victoria feared a hostile reception. “I thought, ‘I’m not walking in that room, me, alone against this bunch of people to discuss this. I think they understand perfectly what they are doing. There’s power in that room and power differences – we are not all equals.”

Shortly after, during two separate incidents at informal drinks with colleagues, one member of staff who had previously been Victoria’s friend at work defended the article, she said, and began citing trans women in sports as a reason to attack trans rights. Another colleague, she said, “poked fun” at her, asked if she was trans, and told her, “If you went to prison I’m not sure which prison you should go to.”

…

Before accepting her job two years ago, Victoria said she thought she could help change things at the Guardian, and hoped it was not prejudice informing the position of some there but rather a lack of knowledge. While she found the latter to often be the case there remains “a group of powerful people who are transphobic” at the organisation, “who have an agenda to push”, she said.

More at the link.

Defund the Guardian. Don’t support them monetarily. Use adblock if you visit the website.

Worth remembering this as Suzanne Moore and her media mates try to spin Moore leaving the Guardian as a grand injustice.