A Transgender teacher has apparently taken her own life after being mocked by a Daily Mail columnist and harassed by journalists, sparking calls for the columnist to be sacked. English woman Lucy Meadows, 32, was found dead in Lancashire, three months after gender reassignment surgery. The head teacher at the school where she worked wrote to parents in a newsletter advising parents and students the popular teacher should be addressed as Miss Meadows after the Christmas break. Richard Littlejohn, a columnist for the Daily Mail, wrote an article headlined: "He's not only in the wrong body … he's in the wrong job", in which he asked whether anyone had thought of "the devastating effect" on the pupils of Meadows's change in gender. He wrote: "Why should they be forced to deal with the news that a male teacher they have always known as Mr Upton will henceforth be a woman called Miss Meadows?" Littlejohn belittled and harassed Meadows, referring to her transition as her “personal problems” and playing on the outdated scare tactic that LGBT people are a threat to children. There are reports the media offered parents money for a picture of Meadows, and she had to leave her house by the back door, and arrive at school very early, or very late, in order to avoid the press pack. Helen Belcher, director of TransMedia Watch, has told The Guardian that while the circumstances surrounding Meadows's death were unclear, "we know that Lucy suffered a huge amount of monstering and harassment by the press when she was very vulnerable around Christmas. That level of press attention could not have helped her mental state one bit." A petition calling for Littlejohn to be fired has been organised by the group Sum of Us, which also wants the Daily Mail to issue an apology, and institute an editorial review to ensure that this never happens again. It says Littlejohn has a long history of using his perch at the Daily Mail to mock and harass others, “from laughing at cerebral palsy to snide insinuation that ethnic minorities got their jobs through discrimination to incessant attacks on the LGBT community, Littlejohn has been a national disgrace,” it says. “The Daily Mail may thrive on controversy to sell its tabloid papers, but even it knows it went too far this time. In the wake of backlash, the Daily Mail removed the article from its website, but the damage has already been done,” Sum of Us continues. “Everyone has the right to say what they think, but mainstream publications like the Daily Mail shouldn't support and promote this sort of hate. The Daily Mail needs to ensure that this never happens again -- by not only yanking Littlejohn’s column and apologizing for the paper’s decision to run the hateful opinion piece, but also instituting an editorial review policy that prevents discriminatory writing from ending up in its paper again.” However the Daily Mail has continued to refer to Meadows with male pronouns and has defended Littlejohn's column, trying to shift the blame: "It is regrettable that this tragic death should now be the subject of an orchestrated twitterstorm, fanned by individuals – including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell – with agendas to pursue,” it’s told The Guardian. Campbell had tweeted: "I hope journalists are doorstepping Dacre, Murdoch and Littlejohn for their reaction to Lucy Meadows' suicide. The Mail really is scum." A vigil has been organised outside the Daily Mail offices in Kensington, west London, on Monday night UK time.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 24th March 2013 - 12:29pm