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Guardian columnist ties cis male murderer to trans women. Now people are protesting their office.

Guardian columnist ties cis male murderer to trans women. Now people are protesting their office.
Photo: Screenshot, Twitter

About 40 people protested outsideĀ The Guardianā€™sĀ London headquarters on Thursday, accusing the British newspaper of repeated transphobia.

The group held Trans pride flags and a large painted sign that said, ā€œGuardian is Transphobic.ā€ They also marched down the street chanting, ā€œWhat do we want? Trans rights! When do want them? Now!ā€

Related: 100 students walk out after girl gets suspended for defending gay friend from violent bullies

While there were many articles in The Guardianā€˜s history that spurred the protest, the catalyst was an op-ed by Catherine Bennett in the newspaperā€™s weekly publication, The Observer,Ā that used the recent murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard to argue that ā€œthose who self-declare their sex and who are perceived as malesā€ should not be allowed in womenā€™s spaces.

Everard, a cisgender woman, was abducted and killed by police officer Wayne Couzens, a cisgender man. In the piece, Bennett says that allowing trans women into places like restrooms will allow ā€œthe same sort of opportunist from appearing in women-only changing rooms.ā€

Natacha Kennedy, who organized Thursdayā€™s protest, toldĀ PinkNewsĀ she couldnā€™t believe a mainstream publication would appropriate Everardā€™s murder to further an anti-trans agenda.

ā€œI thought there would be somebody in the anti-trans community who would do this,ā€ Kennedy said, ā€œone of the really extreme fanatics, but I really did not expect it to be The GuardianĀ using her memory to oppress people. I really never thought The GuardianĀ would sink this low.ā€

A trans man named Jamie also attended the protest, making the trip from Manchester to London to be there.

ā€œOn many occasions this year Iā€™ve felt driven to end my life,ā€ he toldĀ PinkNews, ā€œbecause of the transphobic hate in the newspapers, and the way society takes up that hatred.ā€

After the column on Everard was published, many also took to Twitter to announce they were cancelling their GuardianĀ subscriptions.

Screenwriter Sarah Morgan wrote, ā€œAs a lifelong reader and sometime Guardian contributor, I try to ignore their ā€˜gender criticalā€™ platforming (rather than legitimize the idea of ā€˜debateā€™), but I canā€™t conscionably support the exploitation of a horrible tragedy by this dangerous nonsense.ā€

Another user wrote, ā€œThe only way you could reasonably draw a connection between Sarah Everard and trans women is by discussing them as victims of violence. Not by falsely painting the latter as a danger to society (when trans people in reality face higher rates of violence than cis people).ā€

In the past month alone, trans activists have gathered at The Guardian offices two other times to protest what they call similarly transphobic rhetoric.

Once, it was to protest the publication of an interview with gender theorist Judith Butler, during which they linked Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) with fascism. The interviewer, Jules Gleeson, called the publication out for deleting some of Butlerā€™s most biting comments.

ā€œHabitual bigots online are going to do their thing, and usually respond to pieces without even reading them,ā€ Gleeson told HuffPost. ā€œWhatā€™s been more unexpected was how quickly the publication folded.ā€

The GuardianĀ has since re-inserted Butlerā€™s comments into the interview.

A spokesperson for the publication told Huffpost, ā€œWe have not censored Judith Butler but addressed a failure in our editorial standards.ā€

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