The Sun and Daily Mail criticise Church of England’s guidelines on transphobic bullying
By Joshua Haigh
Church of England’s new campaign to stop trans bullying in schools has enraged the right-wing press.
Primary schoolchildren should be allowed to wear tiaras or dress up in superhero clothes whatever their gender without being criticised, according to just some of the new guidelines from the Church of England.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby explained that this new guidance would be key to helping spread the Christian message “without exception or exclusion”.
“We must avoid, at all costs, diminishing the dignity of any individual to a stereotype or a problem,” he said.
However, The Sun and the Daily Mail appeared to suggest that these guidelines, which will be put in place to help stop trans pupils being singled out as well as allowing others to express themselves in any way they see fit, are somehow bad for their fellow classmates.
The Sun’s headline today reads: “Sing along kids! The skirt on the drag queen goes swish swish – trans classes for children as young as two”.
While the Daily Mail’s headline states: “Church: Let little boys wear tiaras”.
The bias is entirely clear, as is the transparent attempt at scaremongering their readers into essentially demonising the trans community.
One angry social media user said: “Bleurgh, Sun and Mail going for full coordinated culture war…”
Bleurgh, Sun and Mail going for full coordinated culture war pic.twitter.com/ON7w1JVl3U
— Simon (@simonk_133) November 12, 2017
While former Clean Bandit star Neil Milan also shared the frontpages, and wrote: “This is insane”.
In response to the new guidelines, a spokesperson for Stonewall said: “Our research shows that nearly half of lesbian, gay, bi and trans pupils are bullied for being LGBT at school: a situation that desperately needs to change.”