The Guardian is a British media organization. Their transgender coverage has been criticized for anti-trans bias.
Background
The Guardian published an anti-trans piece by Julie Bindel in 2004. Over the following years, the paper became increasingly anti-trans in its stance. A 2018 letter to the editor by anti-trans activist Kathleen Stock and others led to complaints and protests. In 2020, anti-trans contributor Suzanne Moore left following an incendiary piece attacking social constructionist views about sex. More than 200 politicians, journalists, and activists signed a letter denouncing the piece. Moore later said many other comments had been removed because of “denial of female biology.” In 2021, The Guardian censored a comment by Judith Butler:
The Terfs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and the so-called gender critical writers have also rejected the important work in feminist philosophy of science showing how culture and nature interact (such as Karen Barad, Donna Haraway, EM Hammonds or Anne Fausto-Sterling) in favor of a regressive and spurious form of biological essentialism. So they will not be part of the coalition that seeks to fight the anti-gender movement. The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times. So the Terfs will not be part of the contemporary struggle against fascism, one that requires a coalition guided by struggles against racism, nationalism, xenophobia and carceral violence, one that is mindful of the high rates of femicide throughout the world, which include high rates of attacks on trans and genderqueer people.
The anti-gender movement circulates a spectre of âgenderâ as a force of destruction, but they never actually read any works in gender studies. Quick and fearful conclusions take the place of considered judgments. Yes, some work on gender is difficult and not everyone can read it, so we have to do better in reaching a broader public. As important as it is, however, to make complex concepts available to a popular audience, it is equally important to encourage intellectual inquiry as part of public life. Unfortunately, we are living in anti-intellectual times, and neo-fascism is becoming more normalized.
2018 open letter
In 2018 an open letter by critics of the Gender Recognition Act included many key anti-transgender extremists. They are reordered alphabetically by surname below.
Sophie Allen, Lecturer in Philosophy, Keele University
Rosalind Barber, English & Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London
Chetan Bhatt, Professor of Human Rights, Sociology, London School of Economics
Michael Biggs, Associate Professor in Sociology and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford
Diane Brewster (Retired. ex University of Sussex and Open University)
Catherine Butler, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Bath
Richard Byng, Professor in Primary Care Research, University of Plymouth
Alex Byrne, Head of Linguistics and Philosophy Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W Burlette Carter, Professor of Law Emeritus, The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC
Jackie Cassell, Head of the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Clare Chambers, Reader in Philosophy, University of Cambridge
John Collins, Philosophy, University of East Anglia
Sophia Connell, Philosophy, Birkbeck College London
Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University
Rosie Dias, Associate Professor, History of Art, University of Warwick
Debbie Epstein, Professor of Cultural Studies in Education, School of Education, University of Roehampton, London
Rosa Freedman PhD, LLM, LLB, Professor of Law Conflict and Global Development, Director Global Development Division, Co-Director United Nations and Global Order Research Programme, University of Reading
John Gardner FBA, Professor of Law and Philosophy, All Souls College, Oxford
Richard Garside, Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Open University
Leslie Green, Philosophy of Law, Balliol College, Oxford
Liz Guy, School of Computing, Engineering & Mathematics, University of Brighton
Mike Hannis, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities (Ethics and Sustainability), Bath Spa University
PM Higgins, Honorary Research Fellow, Royal Holloway University of London; former Professor of Music, University of Nottingham; former KĂ€the-Leichter Visiting Professor of Womenâs and Gender Studies, University of Vienna
Akrivos D (2022). Transgender reporting in the British press: editorial standards and discursive harms in the post-Leveson era. Journal of Media Law Volume 14, 2022 – Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2022.2153216
Stone, Gemma (June 7, 2021). The Guardian is Transphobic.Medium https://medium.com/@notCursedE/the-guardian-is-transphobic-eebd0d5ea63a
The Unz Review is an American media organization. They frequently publish gender critical articles. It’s described as “a collection of interesting, important, and controversial perspectives largely excluded from the American mainstream media.”
Authors who have commented on trans issues include:
Staff report (Jun 22nd 2022). Swimmingâs ruling on transgender women continues a trend. The Economist https://www.economist.com/international/2022/06/22/swimmings-ruling-on-transgender-women-continues-a-trend
The Daily Mail is a British media organization that publishes a steady stream of sensationalized anti-transgender content.
Background
The Daily Mail was founded in 1896 and is published in London. It was an immediate hit and has enjoyed high circulation for most of its run.
Because of its sensationalized and inaccurate reporting, Wikipedia declared it an unreliable source in 2017. Its current editor is Ted Verity.
They have mentored, nurtured, and published many of the UK’s most anti-transgender activists, including Helen Lewis, Julie Burchill, Peter Hitchens, Katie Hopkins, Richard Littlejohn, Suzanne Moore, and Piers Morgan.
Transgender Tapestry is an American media organization for the transgender community. It was published as a printed news source from 1979 to 2008. It is an important historical document of the trans community. Before the proliferation of online resources, it was an important source of information and connection for the transgender community.
Founded by Merissa Sherrill Lynn and published as a newsletter by the Tiffany Club as The TV-TS Tapestry, it was later called Tapestry and The Tapestry Journal before becoming Transgender Tapestry, a quarterly magazine published by the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE).
Its favorable coverage of J. Michael Bailey under editor Robert VerBruggen included actionable libel published about me, later retracted.
Founded in the spring of 1992, The Chronicle was “derecognized” in 1998 by the student government. It later won the right to publish.
VerBruggen editorship
In 2005, VerBruggen allowed Bailey to publish an article about himself and various controversies, claiming he is a victim of “academic McCarthyism.” Bailey included several related items, including one by transgender troll Willow Arune. Arune’s incompetent cyberstalking of me led Arune to claim that I had filed bankruptcy and lied about having a master’s degree. Arune had made these false claims on USENET, but VerBruggen was the first to let Arune make them in an edited publication. After a lot of correspondence, I finally got VerBruggen to retract all the actionable libel about me in the publication he edited.
After VerBruggen
Bailey and VerBruggen were removed from the masthead in 2007. Its last print edition was in 2011. It was dormant for several years before returning at a new domain in 2016 to 2017.
“…fascinating revelations… In a personable and straightforward manner, [Bailey] describes his research techniques and reproduces the questionnaires given to his subjects. … Despite its provocative title, a scientific yet superbly compassionate exposition.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS, January 2003
“Kirkus Reviews called the book ‘a scientific yet superbly compassionate exposition’ (January 2003).”
Below is the full text with excerpts from above in blue.
January 15, 2003 SECTION: NONFICTION LENGTH: 355 words ISBN NUMBER: 0-309-08418-0 AUTHOR: Bailey, J. Michael TITLE: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE QUEEN: The Psychology of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism PUBLISHER: Joseph Henry Press (256 pp.) $24.95 Mar. 25, 2003 REVIEW:
A researcher into the genetics of homosexuality presents fascinating revelations about feminine boys, gay men, and transsexuals, combining the most recent scholarship on sexual behaviors and preferences with up-close and personal profiles. Bailey (Psychology/Northwestern Univ.) makes some controversial findings in his exploration of stereotypes about femininity and homosexuality. Among the traits he has studied are speech and body language, interest in casual sex, and the importance placed on youth and physical attractiveness in a partner. In a personable and straightforward manner, he describes his research techniques and reproduces the questionnaires given to his subjects. He concludes that gay men have a mixture of male-typical and female-typical characteristics, suggesting that the reason may very well be that their brains are mosaics of male and female parts. Feminine boys, he further asserts, usually do grow up to become gay men, and a small minority of them even become transsexuals. The first section opens with a sympathetic profile of a boy whose mother came to Bailey with questions about raising her very feminine son that lead smoothly into a discussion of the research that has been done on such boys. Next, Bailey focuses on the scientific research on gay men; cross-cultural studies and accounts of homosexual practices in ancient Greece and renaissance Florence are particularly eye-opening. As yet unanswered, Bailey notes, are questions about the existence of homosexual genes and the reason for the persistence of homosexuality in human evolution. Finally, the author explores transsexualism, defined simply as “the desire to become a member of the opposite sex.” Nonjudgmental profiles illustrate what Bailey distinguishes as the two basic types of male transsexuals: extremely feminine gay men, and autogynephiles, “men erotically obsessed with the image of themselves as a woman.” The concluding chapter details the process and costs of medical transitioning from male to female. Despite its provocative title, a scientific yet superbly compassionate exposition.
Frontiers is an American media organization in business from 1981 to 2016.
The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003)
A reviewer for the Southern California LGBT magazine Frontiers reviewed the 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen:
All of Baileyâs musings are interesting and provocative, and his evidence is often powerful⊠Bailey has written a book worth reading. âŠit will have its readers, both pro and con, thinking and talking…
â Frontiers, March 14, 2003 frontiersnewsmagazine.com
The review was cited by the book’s publisher in promotional materials.
