British right wing tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail has sets it's sights on transgender children as a series of articles attacking charity Mermaids and BBC children's show about trans issues emerge in the same weekend.
On Saturday 29th October the tabloid published an article attacking the transgender support charity Mermaids for supporting a mother and her child who has been experiencing gender dysphoria. The article reported that the much applauded charity had 'meddled' in a dispute between the parents of the young child.
Whilst many other reports have made it clear that the child is experiencing issues regarding their gender identity and possibly suffering from gender dysphoria The Daily Mail has claimed that the charity has attempted to influence the child and their mother into becoming transgender.
The mother has been allowing her child to express themselves in a way that feels natural and comfortable to them, and has been presenting as female at both home and school. The father, however, has said that his child is simply 'confused' and blames both his ex-wife and the charity for their child's choices.
The paper has taken an extremely confrontational view in the way that they have reported the story, who refuse to gender the child as anything other than male, despite the child identifying as female, and even go so far as to try and brand Mermaids as 'controversial' simply for being a charity that supports the trans community.
The piece sides completely with the father, and the judge who deemed the mother to be harmful and removed the child from her care, as it goes on to paint a picture of an abused child forced into being transgender by a disturbed mother and a meddling charity.
Whilst the trans community was still reeling from this open and blatant attack on transgender children and an incredibly important charity the paper proceeded to continue its assault on the community, and trans children in particular, as it published anti-trans material on its front page the very next day.
On the 30th October The Mail on Sunday was released with the headline 'Fury At BBC Sex Change Show For 6-Year-Olds'.
The article attacks an educational show produced by the BBC and available on their CBBC website about a transgender 11-year-old Amy, and her struggle to transition to her true gender, 'I'm Just A Girl'. The article claims that parents are angry about the show, saying that is is 'sowing the seeds of confusion' for children.
The piece goes on to claim that the show is inappropriate and that it will cause damage for the audience, using quotes from former MP's, family campaigners and child psychotherapists to try and paint the series in a negative light and make it appear to be a danger to children who may be experiencing struggles with trans issues.
Tory MP Peter Bone spoke out against the show, stating 'It beggars belief that the BBC is making this programme freely available to children as young as six. I entirely share the anger of parents who just want to let children be children. It is completely inappropriate for such material to be on the CBBC website and I shall be writing to BBC bosses to demand that they take it down as soon as possible.'
The show aims to teach children about transgender issues and has been praised the show for its positive message, it's handling of a complex issue and the way that it aims to give children advice that can help them better understand what trans people go through, and that may even help trans children to come to terms with these issues themselves.
The Daily Mail has come under criticism for its handling of these stories over the weekend by many in the trans community and their supporters as a whole, with many taking to social media to condemn the articles and the papers approach to the issues.
Sadly The Daily Mail is no stranger to abuse of transgender people, with the paper having reportedly being responsible for hounding Lilly Wachowski to reveal her trans status, as well as being the chief reason that school teacher Lucy Meadows took her own life.
The paper is a right wing rag, only caring about their sales and their popularity, appealing only to the most backwards and hate filled right wing populace who want to blame their problems on anyone who isn't cis, white, straight, british people in employment. If you fall within the areas that they blame for the ails of the country they will make you their enemy, they will print lie about you and they will make it their mission to destroy your life.
The Daily Mail does not care about the transgender community, they already have the blood of the community on their hands, and now they want to hurt our children.
Amy.
xx
with all due respect, as a trans person, who was told it was just a phase, ill grow out of it and had it ignored, until certain family members used it to take advantage of me, NO its NOT influencing kids, its not "making them transgender" and NO FREAKING CHILD gets a "sex change", not even in the UK. 18 is generally the youngest, no matter what the children might want. heck HRT wont even start until puberty hits, and usually thats JUST blockers to start, and the only side effect of them is POSSIBLE lost time growing (so they might not be as tall, or as big breasted as they otherwise might have been).
ReplyDeletethese shows are for the PARENTS as well sa the kids. information should NEVER be discounted just because it challenges your viewpoint, it used to be just that some wacko was saying the world was round, not flat. now they are saying we are not all the same, the nerve of some people using SCIENCE to change our minds (heavy sarcasm intended there for those whoa re challenged in recognizing it)