From Gay Star News: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/trans-brits-demand-be-freed-hate-filled-media180113
Burchill anti-trans rant sparks protests at the Observer and Telegraph newspapers against media hate speech
By Ray Filar
18 January 2013
The mainstream British media’s hate of trans people has been sharply exposed in the last few weeks and the community is hitting back.
Sick of lazy media misrepresentation, vilification and outright hate speech, trans people and allies in the UK have, over the last two weeks, become visible.
Last night (18 January) over 150 activists gathered on a freezing, dark evening to protest transphobia at the Observer newspaper. They took to the streets in order to make their voices heard.
Standing with banners, megaphones, and woolly hats, the mood of the protest ranged from the enthused to the despairing.
The furore initially kicked off after columnist Suzanne Moore’s careless reference to a ‘Brazilian transsexual’ in an article otherwise focusing on the power of women’s anger. Her throwaway line sparked internet upset, but her following Twitter comments turned upset to outrage.
It may have died down if not for writer Julie Burchill, whose subsequent Observer column contained anti-trans hate speech, comparing trans women to ‘the Black and White Minstrels’ and using words such as ‘shims’ and ‘shemales’.
Around 800 complaints and a barrage of other comment pieces later, the Observer editor John Mulholland withdrew Burchill’s article. It was then reprinted by conservative blogger Toby Young at the Telegraph in the name of ‘free speech’.
Continue reading at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/trans-brits-demand-be-freed-hate-filled-media180113
