The implications proposed in this article suggest that transgender women generally pose as a risk to cisgender lesbians in great enough numbers that it is newsworthy, and something that the general public should consider to be a common occurrence rather than a matter of incredibly rare, isolated experiences. The article headline may use the word “some”, but the clear implication of the article and its headline is that transgender women as an overall minority group pose a threat to cisgender lesbians, and should therefore have their rights restricted in the UK. The day this open letter was written (26th October 2021), you published an article on the BBC News website by Caroline Lowbridge titled ‘We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women’¹. We shall await your recognition, apology, rectification and commitment to improving your corporation’s practices.

It is vital that, as a public service, you hold yourself accountable for the damage that you have done.

We wish to present this letter to you now to request that you seriously consider its contents and recognise both the harm that you have done as well as acknowledge and act upon the violations of your publishing guidelines. The signatories are global and diverse, including staff and representatives from the LGBT Foundation, The Nelson Trust, Sparkle, Girlguiding, The Knights and Orchids Society, Gay & Lesbian Switchboard Ltd, Proud Swans, Trans Pride Brighton, Pride In Surrey, Leeds Pride, Hastings Pride, DIY Pride Brighton, Swindon & Wiltshire Pride, Pride in London, Portsmouth Pride Trust, Pride in Gloucestershire, Bradford Pride, Bristol Pride, Bi Pride UK, Manchester Pride Protest, Southend Pride and Medway Pride Radio, Meath Live and Anti Conversion Therapy Coalition, Indigo Gender Service, UK Parliament, regional Police Independent Advisory Groups, the NHS, members of the Order of the British Empire, registered gender specialists, Gay Times, Seventeen Magazine, Condé Nast, Parenting Magazine, NBC, ITV, The F-Word, journalists both freelance and members of a variety of outlets, Aardman Animation, lecturers from a variety of Universities, the NEU, members of the clergy, Rolls-Royce, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft, members of multiple different political parties, and a wide selection of both past and present BBC employees. This includes a huge amount of cisgender lesbians who are extremely concerned by this dangerous article and the negative, transphobic light in which it paints them.

It remains live and the number continues to grow. At the time of writing this on Friday 29th October, the open letter has been signed by nearly 20,000 people, nearly 12,000 of which have been verified via e-mail (this number would be higher however our letter’s popularity resulted in the website encountering server issues and crashing). Within the hour we had over 1,500 signatures, by the next morning, there were over 8,000. On that same day we, the members of the grassroots organisation Trans Activism UK, penned an open letter reacting to the frankly harmful nature of the article, concerned about the fact that the BBC has openly violated its own impartial journalism guidelines as well as its mission statement and values On Tuesday 26th October 2021 the BBC published an article by Caroline Lowbridge titled ‘We’re being pressured into sex by some trans women’*¹. In addition, you can follow on Twitter for updates on our planned January 8th 2022 protest outside Broadcasting House London.

The following version of Trans Activism UK’s Open Letter to the BBC, complete with signatories present at 8pm UK on Friday October 29th, is the version which will be sent in digital and physical formats to multiple members of staff at the BBC.Īt the time of finalising, the letter has over 20,000 signatories, over 12,000 of whom have been email verified and added to this letter.

Michelle peacock carrickfergus