From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/jan/14/theobserver-transgender
Article attacking transgender people sparks anger as readers flock to complain
Posted by Roy Greenslade
Monday 14 January 2013
A government minister has called for Observer columnist Julie Burchill to be fired because of her column on Sunday in which she attacked transgender people.
Lynne Featherstone, the international development minister who was once equalities minister, took to Twitter to denounce Burchill – a freelance writer – for her “absolutely disgusting… rant against the transgender community”. She described it as “a bigoted vomit” and called for The Observer to sack her.
Featherstone, a Lib-Dem MP, then suggested in another tweet that the paper’s editor, John Mulholland, should be sacked too for publishing the column.
The online version of Burchill’s column attracted more than 2,000 comments, with the majority opposing the writer, and the Twittersphere was deluged from yesterday morning onwards with people arguing for and against Burchill.
The heated debate prompted The Observer’s readers’ editor, Stephen Pritchard, to step in and announce that he will hold an inquiry into the matter. He wrote:
“As you might imagine, I have received many emails protesting about this piece this morning. Thank you to those who have written. I will be looking at this issue and will be replying to all in due course.”
And Guardian News & Media also issued a statement. A spokeswoman said: “We acknowledge the strong reaction to Julie Burchill’s piece published in The Observer. As indicated by Observer editor John Mulholland on Twitter, we are taking such reactions extremely seriously and we have asked our independent readers’ editor to urgently investigate the matter.”
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/jan/14/theobserver-transgender
