Many years ago, when the only places trans people could go to for support were transvestite clubs, I remember there being a series of light-hearted cartoons with the title of “What’s on the TV Tonightâ€. I think they were drawn by Janett Scott. The joke, of course, revolves around the use of TV as an abbreviation for both transvestite and television. No one would have believed, in the last few years of the 20th Century, that transsexuals would ever appear on television as respected public figures.
Oh how times have changed.
This morning Paris Lees of Trans Media Watch appeared twice on BBC Breakfast. I’ll talk later about why exactly she was there, but the simple version is that she was on as a representative of a respectable pressure group, much as they might use someone from Stonewall, Greenpeace, or an arts charity.
That was live, broadcast TV, but the BBC also does a lot of Internet broadcasting these days, in particular through their Democracy Live website, which streams content from Parliament and other venues for public debate. Today Helen Belcher, also of Trans Media Watch, was giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry.
For those of you not resident in the UK, or who hide away from all current affairs stories, Leveson was set up in the wake of the phone and email hacking scandals at the News of the World and other prominent UK newspapers. The inquiry has fairly broad terms of reference and is looking at a wide range of different areas of concern. That it should accept evidence from a trans pressure group, however, is remarkable, and a testament to how hard Paris, Helen and their colleagues have worked over the past year or so.
The TMW evidence was largely concerned with the way in which trans people are systematically mis-represented, pilloried and abused by the national press. Local media is often much more honest in its handling of trans stories, but the national press may then take those stories, plagiarize the content, print photographs without permission, and falsely present the story as if the subject had agreed to be interviewed. They routinely mis-gender trans people, even when the correct pronouns have been used in the articles they are plagiarizing. It is also standard practice to mock the appearance of trans people, and make juvenile jokes about their genitals.
An important part of Helen’s evidence was the many ways in which newspaper editors and their stooges in the Press Complaints Commission get around complaints. For example, the PCC declined to specifically include gender identity as a protected characteristic in their code of practice, claiming that this was already covered by the word “genderâ€, but then when complaints are made they may excuse the newspaper by saying that “gender†does not include gender identity. Where innuendo is used to mock people, they refuse to acknowledge any meaning for words other than precise dictionary definitions. Newspapers will also pick up sensationalist stories from press agencies without checking them, and then wash their hands of any responsibility when those stories prove inaccurate or offensive.
Most damagingly, attacks on trans people by newspapers most often occur when those people are beginning to transition. This is bad in many different ways. Firstly, of course, transition is a very stressful time for trans people, and unwanted attention from the media can make things much worse, for example by making previously supportive family and employers back away. In addition, transition is also the time when trans people look least convincing in their preferred gender, and are therefore most easily mocked. Newspaper behavior is often akin to taking a picture of someone with a leg in plaster and on crutches, and then making jokes about their inability to walk, implying that they will never be able to do so again.
The key issue, however, and probably the one that newspaper editors are most concerned with, is legality. Deliberately outing a trans person who has completed transition and acquired a Gender Recognition Certificate is a criminal offense. But you can’t get a GRC until you have completed transition. Newspapers therefore target trans people when they are still vulnerable and not protected by law. They will also go after people who, for various reasons, are unable to acquire a GRC, most obviously children.
A common question in all of these cases is whether there is any “public interest†in these stories. That is, does the public have a need to know. As Helen noted, newspapers often have difficulty distinguishing between what is in the public interest, and what the public might be interested in. Even that, however, is too subtle for Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Malice, which runs six times as many stories about trans people as any other UK newspaper. In his evidence to the inquiry he claimed that it was necessary to run stories of this type in order to expose immoral behavior, thereby indicating that he thinks simply being trans is something immoral that he and his newspaper have a duty to stamp out.
It is also worth noting that the PCC will currently only accept complaints from people actually featured in stories. One of the possible changes that Lord Justice Leveson is considering is a change to procedure to allow organizations like Trans Media Watch to complain on behalf of the victims. This is important, both because most trans people have very little money, and because after having been attacked in the press they may not have the emotional strength left to launch a complaint by themselves. The Trans Media Watch submission to the inquiry included many examples of innocent people whose lives were blighted by newspaper stories over the years. Not one of them was willing to have their name attached to their evidence, for fear that doing so would only result in their stories being recycled by the press as an act of revenge.
Helen’s evidence will probably be available on replay at the Democracy Live website’s Leveson page from tomorrow.
Back then, to Paris on the BBC. It appears that the Breakfast TV show is not available for replay on iPlayer, and as yet no one has uploaded the material to YouTube. However, the story that Paris was on to talk about has been widely covered elsewhere. Also on the show was 10-year-old Livvy James who is currently transitioning while at school. Livvy, being so young, has no protection under the law. Her mother says the school has been doing its best, but there is little they can do when other parents are actively encouraging their children to bully Livvy.
Interestingly, despite what is being reported in newspapers, Livvy said she has had less bullying since she came out as trans. Prior to this she had been living as a girl at home, and going to school as a boy, and people found this hard to understand. This may indicate that the message about trans people is getting through to the public.
Also Livvy’s mum said that her daughter’s school performance had improved dramatically since she went full time female. I can relate to this. I spent a lot of time off school sick when I was a kid, and I was often trotted in front of the educational psychologist because my teachers felt there must be something wrong. I knew exactly what was wrong, but in those days it would have been so much worse for me had I said anything, so I became very adept at making excuses.
While the behavior of other parents is deeply regrettable, Livvy and her mother are in no doubt where the real blame lies. They point firmly at national newspaper articles about trans people, which are almost always negative and encourage readers to think the worst of trans people. Livvy’s mum has started an online petition asking the Press Association to put a stop to these attacks. It is doing rather better then the one that was launched last year during the airing of My Transsexual Summer. If you’d like to sign up, you can find it here. You may also wish to show your support for Livvy at her Facebook page.
And finally, if you want to learn more about trans kids and the problems they face, there is a new book, Transitions of the Heart, due out in May in which the mothers of trans children tell their stories. I understand that it has an introduction from Kim Pearson of TYFA, so it should be good.
