Daily Mail takes a break from trans attacks to highlight issues on Trans Day of Remembrance
The Daily Mail has taken a break from bashing the transgender community to highlight important issues on Trans Day of Remembrance.
It broke the ranks of other newspapers like the Sun, the Daily Star and the Times, which all ran negative articles about trans people and issues.
Instead, the Mail ran an article quoting the Mermaids charity highlighting the rise in numbers of trans and gender diverse people calling a helpline.
The article cites a Mermaids charity statement which says the number of calls for help has risen from 199 a year to over 1,700.
It also says email correspondences have risen from 296 a year to over 2,200.
The Mail article quotes an unnamed training manager at Mermaids who says that trans and gender diverse young people are self-identifying at a younger age due to YouTube and other resources including discussions on gender identity.
The source says: “Now young people are recognising someone, hearing what they are saying – they are able to say, ‘That’s me, that’s who I am’.”
The article, which takes a break from negative publicity given to trans rights in general by the Mail, has an overall positive tone and responsibly highlights the issue raised by Mermaids.
It also quotes Dr Bernadette Wren, a consultant clinical psychologist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, the only gender identity clinic for young people in the UK.
She says that there is a “greater recognition of transgender and gender-diverse people.”
The article, however, does go on to say: “Despite soaring number of enquiries about ‘gender dysphoria’, it is thought relatively few actually get to the stage of having medical treatment.
“Experts believe that while some children are ‘trapped’ in the wrong body, many are simply confused about their sexuality and identity during the turmoil of puberty.”
It also uses quotation marks around terms like gender identity, gender dysphoria and gender diverse.
And of course Mail readers were unhappy with the positive story on trans issues.
One wrote: “Stop this now. They are children FGS. Play your pathetic PC games with us adults if you must, but leave the children alone. What are we becoming?”
Another added: “Better my charity goes to where it matters….!!!!”
And a third said: “They are not confused about their gender, they are confused by adults telling them they can question their gender.”
Apparently not having read the article, another contributed: “So that’ll be 8 calls then”.
Despite the complaints, the article takes a different tone from other articles in the Mail which have attacked trans people, in particular access to services for transgender young people.
The Mail has previously published damning articles about Mermaids, calling it a “controversial” charity, calling parents “meddlers” and claiming that a mother dressed “her son, five, as a girl.”
Yesterday the Mail on Sunday published a column by Peter Hitchens, who was a vocal figure against same-sex marriage in England and Wales, who claimed that “trans zealots” are “destroying truth itself.”
A column was also published in September by Richard Littlejohn who claimed that trans inclusivity would lead to “burquas for boys”.
The Mail was one of several outlets that also published damning reports attacking the NHS for the cost of allowing trans young people to access fertility support to have children later in life.
It also published a horrifying report about a transgender rapist in prison and used a trans man’s photos without permission to accompany an article attracking trans rights.
But today’s report about Mermaids, which won a PinkNews Award in 2016 and was nominated again in 2017, came as a welcome break from transphobia, despite other outlets still publishing negative articles.
The Daily Star published an article with the headline “SEX SWAP’ CROOKS IN OWN JAILS”, which called trans women prisoners a “threat in women’s prisons” and used quotation marks around the term gender recognition certificate.
The Star article does not appear to offer any proof to back up its headline but did claim that a prisoner had falsely sought to transition in order to “make sexual offending very much easier.”
A Sun article about a trans rapist, commenting on her genitalia, misgendering her and criticising planned changes to the gender recognition process to make transitioning easier, claiming that it will remove powers to stop sexual offenders who “have changed gender to make sexual offending easier”.
The Times also published an article criticising a trans teenager for being elected as the women’s officer for her local Labour Party after the previous post-holder was removed due to accusations of transphobia.
Lily Madigan, now 19, was last year forced to hire a solicitor after her school in Maidstone told the student she was not allowed to adhere to the female dress code, use female toilets or change in the female dressing room.
She later complained about tweets about gender identity sent by Anne Ruzylo, 52, the former women’s officer, which led to an investigation into the executive committee of Bexhill and Battle and Ms Ruzylo’s resignation.
The Mail also recently outed a gay teen against his will, and published an article attacking an out gay military member on the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.
