The British Press and the Community

Submission to The Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press December 2011

Accuracy – Dignity - Respect BM TMW, LONDON, WC1N 3XX www.transmediawatch.org [email protected]

TMW SUBMISSION TO THE LEVESON INQUIRY

CONTENTS

A. Introduction ...... 3 Trans Media Watch ...... 4 B. Defining Transgender and Intersex...... 5 C. Transgender People and the British Media ...... 7 Background ...... 7 Attitudes towards the Media ...... 8 D. Impact of the Press on Public Perception ...... 10 – 24 October 2009 ...... 12 The Scottish Sun – 15 December 2010 ...... 13 The Sun - 25 February 2011 ...... 14 Daily Express – 1 January 2011 ...... 15 Daily Mail – 19 September 2011 ...... 16 Daily Mail – 19 September 2011 ...... 17 The Sun – 6 March 2011 ...... 17 Daily Mail – early 2009 ...... 18 Daily Mail – 4 December 2011...... 19 Daily Mail – 9 December 2011...... 20 The Sun – 31 December 2011 ...... 21 E. Impact of the Press on Individuals and Families ...... 23 Impact of the Press on Transgender Children ...... 25 F. Press and Regulator Response ...... 26 Press Response ...... 26 Regulator Response ...... 27 G. Recommendations ...... 29 1. Protection for Vulnerable Groups ...... 29 2. Protection for the Dead ...... 29 3. Protected Characteristics ...... 30 4. Anonymity ...... 30 5. Penalties ...... 30 6. Press Agencies ...... 31 7. Accessibility ...... 31

Page 2 TMW SUBMISSION TO THE LEVESON INQUIRY

A. Introduction

Trans Media Watch (“TMW”) is pleased to make this submission to the Leveson Inquiry. It aims to demonstrate the unethical and often horrific and humiliating treatment of transgender and intersex people by the British press. TMW believes that the highly adverse treatment of transgender and intersex people by parts of the press is a stark and instructive example of what newspapers (often but not exclusively tabloid) will seek to get away with when no effective formal or internal restraints are in place. On a regular basis, transgender members of the public suddenly find themselves the unwanted subject of intrusive and mocking press attention simply because they do not fit the gender norms as dictated by the press, or because they are undergoing an entirely private process of gender reassignment. No public interest is served by this degrading and exploitative coverage. However, because the victims of these stories are often inexperienced in dealing with the media, and are genuinely scared of further exposure if they take legal or regulatory action (or financially unable to do so), the press simply carries on inflicting these wrongful practices with impunity. It is our assertion that in no other circumstance would psychologically or socially vulnerable private individuals, often receiving personal medical interventions, be made the subject of this attention – accompanied by editorial which casts these individuals as ‘freaks’ or worse. Demeaning headlines directed at private transgender individuals are endemic in the tabloid press. “The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.”1 Our submission is that the press, when dealing with transgender and intersex issues, frequently fail in that core purpose, often with disastrous results, and that the regulators, for whatever reasons, frequently fail to protect the victims of the targets of such press. On the basis of the submission below, Trans Media Watch respectfully submits to the Inquiry that such experiences of transgender people: (a) be taken seriously as showing the culture and practices of the tabloid media at its worst; (b) be used in considering how and why the tabloids casually interfere with the privacy of non-public figures when they can get away with it. Trans Media Watch also respectfully makes detailed recommend