A Guardian writer has accused the paper of censoring the debate on gender identity. Hadley Freeman, who spent 22 years at the paper, said that editors were nervous about taking on trans issues, fearing a backlash from staff and being labelled bigots.
According to The Times:
She made the criticisms in a farewell letter to Katherine Viner, the editor-in-chief, in which she said that the paper’s once willing embrace of complex issues had disappeared in regard to the “gender issue”.
Freeman, 44, who is joining The Sunday Times in January, outlined how her repeated calls to investigate the transgender charity Mermaids were rejected.
She wrote that her efforts were “to no avail, either because of the editors’ ideological beliefs or — more likely — their fear of the reaction in the office”.
Mermaids is the subject of a Charity Commission investigation over claims that it handed out potentially harmful breast binders to girls as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge.
In the letter, seen by Private Eye, Freeman added: “It is astonishing that the progressive media has handed such an own goal to the right, closing its eyes to concerns about the safeguarding out of fear that to do otherwise would lead to accusations of bigotry.
“You have said that both sides in the gender debate are equally passionate — but only one side demands censorship. It seems to me that at The Guardian that side has won.” She further alleged that the paper had become “dysfunctional”, with staff afraid of being “wrong” on controversial issues.
In an article for the website UnHerd earlier this year, Freeman said she did not feel supported by colleagues for voicing doubts about “gender ideology”, but did not name The Guardian.
The Guardian did not comment but when Freedman’s departure was announced, Viner said: “She is a wonderful writer and has been a fantastic Guardian colleague for many years.”
