Two trans journalists quit The Guardian, citing transphobia

[Popchyk]

www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwick/two-transgender-employees-quit-guardian-transphobia

Lawsuits against The Guardian to follow, no doubt.

The article is quite funny in its po-faced declarations of transphobia (and no evidence whatsoever to back them up).

That's what happens when you indulge, indulge, indulge.

They turn on you. They always turn on you.

Look at A Challenor and the Green Party, after everything the Greens did for the Challenors. Challenor quit, citing transphobia.

Not sure the two journalists have a huge number of alternative places to work.

That's the thing. No emplyer wants employess with an attitude of entitlement, "difficult" people. And anyway, the tide is beginning to turn on trans ideology and it won't be so woke to have outspoken activists on board. Looking forward, employers should be very wary.

Maybe they can find jobs as bloggers, though.

Re. The lawsuit from the Times journalist is covered by the same Buzzfeed writer here:

www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/patrickstrudwick/times-sued-transphobic-bullying-former-editor?__twitter_impression=true

She claims that there was an atmosphere at the Times hostile to trans people in general and therefore also to her.

On one occasion, O’Donnell alleges, during a news meeting with two senior editors in which a murderous attack on trans women in India was mentioned, one of the editors made a transphobic joke about it being a “lifestyle choice”.

“I left the room in shock,” O’Donnell told the tribunal. “I didn’t know I was going to vomit until I got to the loo.” O’Donnell says she was then sick.

In her witness statement, she wrote: “The callous and dehumanising nature of the comments, however intended, left me feeling as if the floor had opened up beneath me and that I had fallen into a reality in which what these men really thought of me and people like me was revealed.”

Doesn’t take much to deny a trans journalist’s humanity, does it?

Well my last (longer) post was deleted for breaking the MN guidelines. I thought it was pretty mild but anyway. Shrugs.

"In June, the Guardian published another editorial about “identities in conflict”, characterising trans people and feminists as distinct oppositional groups — ignoring pro-trans feminists. It was later amended following internal opposition. "

Compare this, from the "begging bowl" notice soliciting donations to The Guardian (which I have contributed to from time to time) - my bolding:

"The Guardian is editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important as it enables us to give a voice to those less heard, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. It’s what makes us different to so many others in the media, at a time when factual, honest reporting is critical."

Comprehensively Busted!

Whose "voices are less heard"? - Women's (you know who I mean) or trans advocates'?

Who is "powerful"? - They have just told us in the Buzzfeed article - the internal trans lobby group who "edited the editor" and "steered opinion"!

Who is "held to account"? - not the NSPCC over the Leather-Dog Wank-Meister scandal, not the Girl Guides taking safeguarding advice from a pornographer, not Stonewall lying about the Equalities Act, not the MOJ introducing "self-ID" throughout the Criminal Justice System, and on and on and on . . .

What is the latest scandal? The YHA - I wonder if they will be covering that one?

The role of the media, isn't to validate its journalists identity and political views its to a) reflect the concerns of the public and b) hold power to account

This!!!

By the way, this Guardian which is apparently oh so transphobic, is the same Guardian which published the article about Gary/Marie Dean going on hunger strike in prison because Dean wasn't being 'recognised as a woman', without a single mention of Dean's disgusting crimes (they later added in the crimes). That was actually when I decided I was finished with The Guardian, so there you go.

I agree, it's 'full capitulation or you are totally against us' with these people. Meh, people will soon tire of this shite.

medium.com/@rogerdubar/we-need-to-talk-about-sexism-homophobia-in-gender-activism-1aabdabec797

This very good article also covers the guardian writers who resigned

Roger Dubar is always worth reading. He is staunchly gender-critical and Twitter permanently suspended him for it.

Oops! Posted too soon. I meant to add this article by him: uncommongroundmedia.com/im-with-the-banned-twitter-in-the-time-of-gender-fascism/

Do we know that the two people who resigned were definitely journalists? And not working for the Guardian in some other capacity?

The comments they complain about seem fairly mild compared to what women have to put up with in a lot of workplaces.

Flouncing off and vomiting in the ladies loo? Christ they wouldn’t have lasted five minutes in some of the places I’ve worked in, poor love.

Two trans journalists quit, and another appears.

www.theguardian.com/football/2019/aug/16/im-nicky-bandini-and-im-still-a-sports-writer

For 13 years I have written under a different name. Today I am coming out as transgender, but my love of storytelling remains

Here's my comment on the trans sports writer article. I posted it about 20 minutes ago and it's still not there. I don't expect it to get past the moderators.

It's a shame that the only way for people like Nicky to deal with "the body that life dealt me, and the expectations that go with it" is to alter their bodies so that they fit with society's expectations. In the past feminists fought not to have such expectations placed on women just because of the type of body they inhabit. I would fight alongside people like Nicky for everyone to be accepted as they are and not have to change their bodies to fit these 'expectations'.

Your comment is perfect OldCrone factual and succinct.

It's all getting rather tiresome really, a bit like the boy who cried wolf.
When everything and everyone is transphobic then nothing is.

I’m not a journalist but I’m sure male journos and editors have always treated their female colleagues with the utmost respect and never written any articles or printed any photos that could be seen as sexist or misogynistic.

So Paolo is now Nicky?

I honestly don't give a shit. Do they know enough about sports to write interesting, relevant and accurate articles? That's all I need to know.

This relentless drive to be known mostly for your preferred style of dress or non-work-related life choices is as boring as it is pointless.

I don't announce my sexuality at the start of every work meeting and expect praise for it before we get down to the agenda.

Nicky clearly is content with being associated with the Guardian, I'd say it's likely to only be a small % of people who feel it is an extreme hate-filled environment.

I liked & appreciated Nicky's article FWIW - I do think society as a whole still needs to see more positive stories about LGBT people, we're very much not at a place where 'nobody cares'.

Just read Nicky Bandini's article - I knew who she was previously as I read quite a lot of football articles. Would absolutely love to know what she thinks of the transgender people in sport issue.

Yep Buzz it's all just so attention seeking and narcissistic. LGB just came out to family and friends. It's all become such a production and frankly I (as a straight person) can only imagine how the older LGB community feel when for them coming out was a risk, I'm sure they are happy that it's more widely accepted but I imagine that in some way the modern day drama that some are attaching to coming out must seem cringeworthy...

I think social media has a lot to do with this, elements of society have become very much me, me, me. It's not about acceptance anymore just pure validation. My pronouns he/his/him...I'm a non binary, demisexual hobgoblin... I like my bottom spanked with a feather duster whilst hanging from a chandelier... Honestly the way this is going we're gonna need bigger name badges.

OldCrone

"but my love of storytelling remains"

It certainly does.

Yes I would like some reassurance of unbiased approach to reporting on the issues around single sex sport.

Will be interesting to see how Nicky gets on in the uber blokey world of football. It won’t be easy.

Funny how so many transgender women remain in such male dominated careers post-transition.

Well it wouldn't be easy if you were female. I suspect the male football writers and pundits won't really change their view of Nicky.

What a crushing blow to the Graun the loss of these two will be. At least they’ve Little OJ.

I thought the colleague’s remark about prisons was unnecessary

Depends. It's a bizarre and rude thing to say out of the blue. But if the context was a discussion of transwomen in women's prisons, and Victoria brought it into the realm of the personal by saying "Would you send me to a man's prison?" then "I don't know" is a fine answer.

Having seen transactivists debate I think the latter scenario is much more likely than someone just randomly making the prison remark.

Old Crone I've just scanned quickly through the comments and couldn't spot yours among the overwhelmingly positive and admiring ones. My guess is that the vast majority are by men and I spotted a transwoman in there too. Men supporting a man and unaware of the implications of all this on the women in their lives. Most seemed primarily concerned that the football commentary wouldn't stop.