The Age in revolt on transgender coverage

The treatment of transgender ­issues is causing tension at The Age after an opinion piece was pulled from its website.

The Age editor Gay Alcorn removed the anonymous opinion piece written by a parent of a transgender child from The Age’s website, where it was published after being commissioned by the Sun-Herald, which ran it in print. The piece did not run in print in the Sunday Age. Picture: AFP

The treatment of transgender ­issues is causing tension in The Age’s newsroom after an anonymous opinion piece commissioned by editors at one of its Sydney-based sister publications was pulled from the Melbourne newspaper’s website.

The controversy over the piece — “My child is transitioning gender, but I feel the system makes it too easy” — came after journalists expressed disquiet about an interview with former Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore published last week.

Moore left the British newspaper in November after a backlash from Guardian staff following the publication of a column in which she argued “we have gone through the looking-glass and are being told that sex is a construct”.

Newsroom sources told Media that a “town hall” meeting which included The Age editor Gay Alcorn and Nine executive editor of metro publishing James Chessell included multiple questions about reporting on transgender issues.

There were questions about the editorial process on articles about transgender issues and about whether social media rules for journalists could be relaxed to allow them to more freely share their views on editorial decisions.

Those were perceived to be about the interview with Moore written by The Age’s Europe correspondent Bevan Shields. On Sunday, Alcorn removed the anonymous opinion piece written by a parent of a transgender child from The Age’s website, where it was published after being commissioned by the Sun-Herald, which ran it in print. The piece did not run in print in the Sunday Age.

Nine executive editor of metro publishing James Chessell. Picture: AAP

The decision follows several other moves to remove content this year, including a Michael Leunig cartoon that senior editorial staff were concerned expressed views about mask-wearing that could upset readers and an article in which Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann accused Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of having “destroyed the village to save it” through his pandemic response.

The transgender article was published anonymously to “protect the identity of (the author’s) child, who is a minor”.

The publication of the piece was also criticised for its proximity to the discovery of a body in Melbourne’s inner-east, believed to be that of missing trans woman Bridget Flack. Alcorn told Media the article had not been removed because of negative reaction on social media but “sensitivity” following Ms Flack’s death.

Alcorn said staff raised questions about the Moore article and she had defended it, highlighting The Age’s publication last week of an article by Yves Rees, a La Trobe University academic, which argued that transgender voices are “rarely heard” in debate over issues that concern them.

“I have no problem at all with staff asking questions about our coverage — that’s what our town halls are for,” she said.

“I supported the publication of the piece on Moore, as I did the two other very different articles related to trans issues last week.”

The anonymous piece detailed how the parent had “consented to testosterone treatment” but continued to have reservations about the “enormous amount of pressure” she had felt to agree.

After publication, Sydney writer Benjamin Law — a contributor to the newspaper’s Good Weekend magazine — wrote on Twitter that he had contacted colleagues and editors about the piece.

Alcorn joined The Age earlier this year after the departure of former editor Alex Lavelle, shortly after a staff petition called for more non-white staff and criticised a front-page story about the Black Lives Matter protests, which was ultimately corrected.

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