Thousands of LGBT+ people and their allies have signed a petition calling for the UK press to stop giving an “uncritical platform” to the LGB Alliance.
Referencing the wide-ranging condemnation the group has courted, whether from top Pride organisers to trade unions, as well as the ballooning rate of transphobic hate crimes, the petition has seen more than 4,700 people call for the press to stop platforming LGB Alliance.
One of the UK’s most high-decibel anti-trans groups, the LGB Alliance, has sought to drive a wedge between the LGB and T communities since its inception, often using freewheeling misinformation and inflamed claims to do so.
Founders of the LGB Alliance have defended working with the anti-LGBT+ and anti-abortion Heritage Foundation as well as refusing to denounce its neo-Nazi and homophobic supporters, despite it seeking to position itself as an “LGB rights group”.
“The UK media continue to provide an uncritical platform to the self-described ‘LGB’ Alliance, an organisation many in the LGBT+ community feel is a hate group and does not represent them,” wrote actor David Paisley in the Change.org petition.
“We the undersigned ask that the UK media stops providing an uncritical platform for the contentious organisation LGB Alliance.
“The LGB Alliance are widely thought of as an anti-LGBT hate group, as such any discussion in the UK media should frame them with respect to how they are perceived by the LGBT+ community,” he added.
“They do not speak for us, and they should not be quoted or asked to comment on issues affecting the LGBT+ community without clear and unequivocal reference to their status as a perceived hate group.”
Paisley concluded: “The LGB Alliance do not represent our LGBT+ community.
“We reject anti-trans rhetoric and support our fellow community members. Trans rights are human rights.”
Anti-trans media coverage so intense it is corroding trans people’s mental health, researchers warn
Monitoring groups have highlighted that the trans community are hounded, dehumanised and demonised by the UK’s mainstream media on a regular basis.
Indeed, the media have reduced the “debate” over trans rights, human rights advocates and researchers say, to something so “toxic” that the almost daily torrent of anti-trans coverage is corroding trans people’s mental health.
Exposure to anti-transgender messaging was found to correlate strongly with reports of depression, anxiety and psychological distress, a stud. More than 97 per cent reported seeing negative depictions of transgender people in the media in the past 12 months.
This almost endless stream of anti-trans coverage over the past few years – fuelled, in part, by since-ditched government plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act – has to stop, Paisley said.
Only last month did Boyz magazine faced blistering backlash after it platformed the LGB Alliance across its social media.