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| Lucy Meadows: why her death will not be in vain | Lucy Meadows: why her death will not be in vain |
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| "I'd now ask for my privacy to be respected so that I can continue with my job," said Lucy Meadows, whose face has been in every national newspaper over the past week. Why? She transitioned from male to female and was a teacher – and was persecuted by the press after her local newspaper ran a "story" on those two facts. Her emails show she was stalked by journalists: "I'm just glad they didn't realise I also have a back door. I was usually in school before the press arrived and stayed until late so I could avoid them going home." Parents were offered money for photos of her. It's a wonder she even got out of bed in the morning – I doubt I could, in her situation. Last week, she died. | "I'd now ask for my privacy to be respected so that I can continue with my job," said Lucy Meadows, whose face has been in every national newspaper over the past week. Why? She transitioned from male to female and was a teacher – and was persecuted by the press after her local newspaper ran a "story" on those two facts. Her emails show she was stalked by journalists: "I'm just glad they didn't realise I also have a back door. I was usually in school before the press arrived and stayed until late so I could avoid them going home." Parents were offered money for photos of her. It's a wonder she even got out of bed in the morning – I doubt I could, in her situation. Last week, she died. |
| You can see why people assumed suicide the moment news of her death broke. In a recent study, 84% of trans respondents had thought about ending their lives – 27% of those in the previous week. Of those who had considered suicide, 48% had made an attempt. These tendencies, though, are usually before transition. Studies also show that closeted gay people are more prone to suicide than those who are out and have social support. | You can see why people assumed suicide the moment news of her death broke. In a recent study, 84% of trans respondents had thought about ending their lives – 27% of those in the previous week. Of those who had considered suicide, 48% had made an attempt. These tendencies, though, are usually before transition. Studies also show that closeted gay people are more prone to suicide than those who are out and have social support. |
| What the research doesn't reveal is the wallpaper of people's minds; that transition-tartan of shame and paranoia. Can you chart that? How the corner shop seems too much to face? How you lock yourself in the kitchen to block out the knocking on the front door? How you wonder why it even matters what the people in the shop think – why you shouldn't go in a dress one day and a suit the next? Why someone might abuse you in the street? Questions proliferate, answers don't. | What the research doesn't reveal is the wallpaper of people's minds; that transition-tartan of shame and paranoia. Can you chart that? How the corner shop seems too much to face? How you lock yourself in the kitchen to block out the knocking on the front door? How you wonder why it even matters what the people in the shop think – why you shouldn't go in a dress one day and a suit the next? Why someone might abuse you in the street? Questions proliferate, answers don't. |
| When I heard that Meadows had died my first thought wasn't suicide but murder. It's not so surprising if you're aware that trans people are murdered with depressing frequency. The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) website has a long though not exhaustive list of people killed because they were trans. Last year that was 267 worldwide – a large proportion for a tiny minority group – and the average age of those murdered was 28. | When I heard that Meadows had died my first thought wasn't suicide but murder. It's not so surprising if you're aware that trans people are murdered with depressing frequency. The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) website has a long though not exhaustive list of people killed because they were trans. Last year that was 267 worldwide – a large proportion for a tiny minority group – and the average age of those murdered was 28. |
| You won't read about TDoR in the newspapers that treated Meadows's transition as a matter of public interest. Being trans is no more newsworthy than having a disability – at a push it was a local story, but hardly front-page news. You worry about that, though, when you're trans, that the press will find out that you, well … exist. I could tell you about journalists camped outside family homes, mothers sneaking their children out at 4am to faraway relatives – or you could just read Trans Media Watch's submission to the Leveson inquiry. | You won't read about TDoR in the newspapers that treated Meadows's transition as a matter of public interest. Being trans is no more newsworthy than having a disability – at a push it was a local story, but hardly front-page news. You worry about that, though, when you're trans, that the press will find out that you, well … exist. I could tell you about journalists camped outside family homes, mothers sneaking their children out at 4am to faraway relatives – or you could just read Trans Media Watch's submission to the Leveson inquiry. |
| Meadows's children, meanwhile, are grieving. They'll learn, though, of how she described a hostile press that turned away those parents who wanted to give positive comments. They'll know how Richard Littlejohn saw her life as nothing more than something to fill his column and suggested she just go away, presumably with a scarlet T emblazoned on her chest. | |
| A petition calling for the Daily Mail to sack Littlejohn has, so far, more than 180,000 signatures. The Mail has dismissed the criticism as an "organised Twitter campaign", but wasn't this the same paper that whipped up signatures (a mere 39,000) calling for Jonathan Ross's sacking after Sachsgate? Paul Dacre will ignore the petition, of course, but he'd be a fool not to see how out-of-step the Mail is with fast changing public attitudes towards trans people. | A petition calling for the Daily Mail to sack Littlejohn has, so far, more than 180,000 signatures. The Mail has dismissed the criticism as an "organised Twitter campaign", but wasn't this the same paper that whipped up signatures (a mere 39,000) calling for Jonathan Ross's sacking after Sachsgate? Paul Dacre will ignore the petition, of course, but he'd be a fool not to see how out-of-step the Mail is with fast changing public attitudes towards trans people. |
| There are plenty of trans teachers in Britain, quietly working away. If Littlejohn and pals want to "protect" children from trans people's existence, perhaps they should stop hounding us and putting us in their papers. They promise to, now, like wolves promising to self-regulate a hunt. As lawer and journalist David Allen Green says: "The way the tabloids treated Lucy Meadows is how they would treat anyone, if they could get away with it." | There are plenty of trans teachers in Britain, quietly working away. If Littlejohn and pals want to "protect" children from trans people's existence, perhaps they should stop hounding us and putting us in their papers. They promise to, now, like wolves promising to self-regulate a hunt. As lawer and journalist David Allen Green says: "The way the tabloids treated Lucy Meadows is how they would treat anyone, if they could get away with it." |
| Meet Mike Penner, veteran Los Angeles Times journalist: "I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words." He wrote that in 2007 and lived as Christine for over a year – before swapping his byline back to Mike in 2008, without explanation. In 2009, he killed himself. How, I wonder, was a primary school teacher supposed to cope with the pressures of public transition if a seasoned journalist couldn't? | Meet Mike Penner, veteran Los Angeles Times journalist: "I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words." He wrote that in 2007 and lived as Christine for over a year – before swapping his byline back to Mike in 2008, without explanation. In 2009, he killed himself. How, I wonder, was a primary school teacher supposed to cope with the pressures of public transition if a seasoned journalist couldn't? |
| I understand why parents might dislike trans teachers. It's called fear when we are being generous and bigotry when we are not. Children might have to sit next to us on a bus one day though. That's life. And some of those children will be trans themselves. Are you a parent? Do you know for sure that your child is not trans? How about gay? My parents weren't expecting a trans child, but that's human variation for you. What's the point in pretending we don't exist? We do. | I understand why parents might dislike trans teachers. It's called fear when we are being generous and bigotry when we are not. Children might have to sit next to us on a bus one day though. That's life. And some of those children will be trans themselves. Are you a parent? Do you know for sure that your child is not trans? How about gay? My parents weren't expecting a trans child, but that's human variation for you. What's the point in pretending we don't exist? We do. |
| We need more people like Lucy Meadows in schools, not fewer. Meadows wanted to teach her pupils honesty, integrity, tolerance. What does Littlejohn have to teach our children? Spite? Distrust? Self-interest? I wonder how upset Meadows's pupils are – more than when they heard their teacher had a new name? Children, by the way, are used to magical transformations and a man becoming a woman is as logical to them as a mermaid growing legs. Things change. Kids get this. It gives me hope. | We need more people like Lucy Meadows in schools, not fewer. Meadows wanted to teach her pupils honesty, integrity, tolerance. What does Littlejohn have to teach our children? Spite? Distrust? Self-interest? I wonder how upset Meadows's pupils are – more than when they heard their teacher had a new name? Children, by the way, are used to magical transformations and a man becoming a woman is as logical to them as a mermaid growing legs. Things change. Kids get this. It gives me hope. |
| I dream of a world where people are judged not by the space between their legs but by that between their ears. I've painted a bleak picture, but the saddest part isn't her death, and not even that she'll never know it wasn't in vain, that she galvanised a community and, hopefully, helped change social attitudes. No, the saddest part is that, despite everything, if you can find the strength, the love, support and respect – as Meadows was starting to and thousands of trans people already have – life can be sweet. I'm bitter she didn't get to taste that. | I dream of a world where people are judged not by the space between their legs but by that between their ears. I've painted a bleak picture, but the saddest part isn't her death, and not even that she'll never know it wasn't in vain, that she galvanised a community and, hopefully, helped change social attitudes. No, the saddest part is that, despite everything, if you can find the strength, the love, support and respect – as Meadows was starting to and thousands of trans people already have – life can be sweet. I'm bitter she didn't get to taste that. |