MISREPRESENTATION OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA

Early day motion 1256, tabled 26 March 2013 by Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 29 members.

That this House condemns misrepresentation of transgender people in the British media; notes that some media organisations continue to misrepresent transgender people deliberately and publish their private information in spite of the findings of the Leveson report and in breach of the editors code; believes that such misrepresentation has an extremely damaging impact on those individuals who are named, on the wider transgender community and on the public's perception of transgender people; condemns the harassment of transgender people, their families and colleagues, of which the experiences of Lucy Meadows are the latest; calls for the Press Complaints Commission to issue a public notice to editors immediately reminding them of their existing obligations under the letter and the spirit of the editors code when reporting transgender stories; further notes with concern that the reporting of Lucy Meadows reflects the wider culture of inappropriate language when it comes to stories relating to transgender people; and further calls for an immediate end to misrepresentation of transgender people in the press.

Signatures by party: Labour 14, Liberal Democrat 12, Alliance 1, Conservative 1, Green 1.