fuck everything

[kaberett]

fuck you if you think it is ever acceptable to write about a trans* person using the name they were assigned at birth, without their explicit permission

fuck you twice, three times, four times over, if you do it when writing about their fucking inquest

you absolute shitting bastards

Comments

[hairyears]

I fear that complaining to the offending author, or their publisher, will do more harm than good: we are not dealing with errors and misjudgements, we are dealing with hatred and a well-judged campaign intended to foster and maintain hatred in the general population.

As such, receiving a complaint is a mark of success, and a useful identifying marker for a living target.

If we had an effective Press Complaints Commission, they would be a useful address for a complaint; but we don't, and they may - on an individual level - collaborate in retribution against the complainant by the publications they nominally 'regulate'.

Your best bet might be targeting the publication's advertisers. Ideally, a 'pink pound' campaign would be an effective threat: but choose your allies carefully - many people who are in positions of apparent leadership in the LGBT community, so as to make such actions happen, are not as influential as they claim... Or have sold out to the very advertisers and publications and mainstream political parties who are part of the problem. Some *are* the problem: you don't need to go far in the 'L' and the 'G' end of the LGBT movement to encounter visceral hatred of trans people. I think that Cambridge is remarkably fortunate in this regard; London and the media, less so.

So... Find useful allies, form a credible commercial threat, contact the advertisers. And know that you are not engaging in a debate or a discussion when you contact the offending writer and whoever pays them: you are poking someone who will delight in destroying your life.

reposting as a reply to Hairyears rather than a top level comment, sorry

[liv]

kaberett has said on the LJ version of this discussion that they don't want to discuss this particular article in detail. For the record I wanted to say I don't think this comment is entirely helpful or entirely accurate. Sometimes you're right that there's no point complaining about journalism that is deliberately intended to offend and cause controversy. But not in every possible case.