By Christiana Warne
A new report into anti-trans media coverage in the UK has found an anti-rights agenda in the press, with anti-trans stories being used as a political tool to attack European equality and human rights frameworks.
The authors of the report are calling for urgent action, including the formation of an intersectional coalition of advocates, journalists, academics, policymakers and individuals, and better press regulations on an increasingly hostile media in order to curtail a wider attack on the rights of LGBTQ people, women and migrants. Without them, the authors say it could take decades for conditions to improve, especially in authoritarian societies.
Attacking LGBTQ rights to attack women, migrants, and EU
According to the report How anti-trans media undermines human rights and equality for everyone “LGBTQ people, and major legal developments in LGBT rights, were used to directly attack the EU, the European course of human rights and the Human Rights Act”.
The report found that opposition to trans rights overlaps with opposition to gender equality, lesbian and gay rights, racial equality, migration and asylum rights, religious tolerance (especially towards Islam), disability rights and environmentalism.
Authors Dr Charlotte Galpin and Dr Ash Stokoe from the University of Birmingham explored stories that the British press published about ‘Europe’ and LGBTQ rights between 1973 and 2017. They also included some examples from the 2020s. “By the 2020s, newspaper articles used support for LGBTQ rights to criticise pro-European politicians or to justify Brexit.”
Media hostility intensifying
According to their analysis, press hostility towards marginalised groups has intensified with changes in the media landscape, including increasingly concentrated press ownership and a pay per-click advertising model.
The release of the report comes at a time when British politics is marked by attempts to push trans people out of public life.
Key findings from the report include:
The report’s findings are based on analysis of four widely-read newspapers: The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, and The Sun, using a feminist narrative approach.
- Some news articles opposed the first antidiscrimination protections for trans people because they might similarly lead to protections based on sexual orientation.
- Many articles oppose the rights of asylum on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, background. Muslim people were brought into association with reception and criminality.
- A connection between anti-trans stories and climate scepticism appears numerous times in the data.
- This issue of free speech and freedom of the press were defended as a right to offend trans people and other sex.
- Parts of the press will trade rights for women and LGBTQ people as a challenge to established male power. Analysis reveals a broader societal concern, going back to the 80s, that allowing trans people to legally change gender could result in daughters inheriting male wealth and by extension, political power.
Everyone’s rights at risk
The report stresses that failing to take media transphobia seriously endangers everybody’s civil rights. “We argue that anti-trans media stories are closely connected to a wider reactionary agenda that undermines human rights frameworks, as well as the rights of other marginalised groups.”
The authors state that the British press is not fulfilling its democratic role of informing citizens on political issues, enabling debate and political participation, and holding political representatives to account.
“Over the last decades, implementing the Levison recommendations has been a failure, with most major newspapers opting for self-regulation, mostly through Ipso. The decline in journalistic standards has been exacerbated by the development of social media owned by more billionaires, which has fundamentally changed how the news works, but also adds these additional monopolies into the mix.”
Opposing trans rights to oppose the EU
According to the report, parts of the press have used their opposition to trans rights to oppose the EU and the UK’s membership of the ECHR, with newspapers and Eurosceptic politicians conflating the EU and ECtHR in stories about LGBTQ rights.
The authors say LGBTQ rights were weaponised for a bigger political purpose: to undermine UK membership of both institutions.
In the 1980s many news articles accepted the rulings of ECtHR when they ruled in favour of the UK government and against LGBTQ rights, but that support changed once LGBTQ people started winning rights. After the EU and ECtHR started ruling against the UK, newspaper articles on LGBTQ people, and major legal developments in LGBTQ rights, were used to directly attack the EU, the ECtHR and the Human Rights Act 1998.
Call for action to fight the anti-trans agenda
“The time for action is now”.
“In the age of AI, big tech leaders seek to influence the global democratic processes.”
The authors call for a stronger intersectional coalition of advocates, journalists, policymakers, academics, and individuals who recognise anti-trans media as part of a broader reactionary agenda. A cross-sector coalition should involve trans and LGBTQ advocacy, groups advocating for migrants’ rights, racial equality, disability rights and climate action, political parties and policymakers, as well as media reform campaigners.
They call for identifying steps for media regulation, treating press and social media regulation as interconnected.
The authors hope the report will be used to challenge anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ policies promoted by the press and by reactionary politicians and movements and encourage organisations working to support different groups to build capacity and avoid replicating work done by other organisations.
An article by Dr Victoria McCloud, British lawyer and former High Court judge, published by MDI described the increased negative media portrayal of the trans community, which created a hostile environment for the community ultimately labelling them as a threat. This report aims to raise awareness and eliminate stereotypes surrounding the trans and LGBTQ community. You can read it here.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Media Diversity Institute. Any question or comment should be addressed to [email protected]
