The Age sacks columnist Julie Szego amid gender furore

The masthead has sacked Julie Szego after she slammed its refusal to run an article on youth gender transition.

Julie Szego told The Australian that the post about her colleagues at The Age was ‘a vague and cheeky comment that was not intended to put anyone down’. Picture: Derrick den Hollander

The editor of The Age has sacked one of the masthead’s star columnists, Julie Szego, after she took aim at the publication over its ­refusal to run an article on youth gender transition.

Last week, Szego posted on ­social media that while she had been commissioned to write a feature-length story about the contentious issue by the newspaper’s former editor Gay Alcorn, The Age’s current boss Patrick Elligett refused to run it.

Szego, a freelancer who has written for The Age on and off for more than two decades, subsequently chose to self-publish the 5000-word piece on her own Substack page, telling her social media followers about her new blog: “I’ll be writing about gender identity politics … without the copy being rendered unreadable by a committee of woke journalists redacting words they deem incendiary, such as ‘male’.”

Patrick Elligett, editor of The Age.

Szego told The Australian that the post about her colleagues at The Age was “a vague and cheeky comment that was not intended to put anyone down”, but it had been cited by Elligett as a reason to sack her as a columnist.

“I love my former comrades at The Age,” Szego said.

“I have no bitterness whatsoever, but this issue of gender identity politics is causing tensions in newsrooms around the world and The Age is no different.”

Szego said she believed her story was “measured”, and that despite suggestions to the contrary she does not hold a firm view one way or another on paediatric transition.

Szego also said the fact that she attended the controversial Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne in March had been used as part of a whispering campaign against her.

“I attended the rally, I was conspicuous with notebook and pen,” she said. “I attended as a journalist because I wanted to get some colour from the event as I’m hoping to write a book on the wider debate.

“My attendance at the rally caused great suspicion in there (The Age’s newsroom).”

Elligett told The Australian that he explained to Szego why he would not publish the article, and said The Age “continues to cover the issue of gender policy with balance, nuance and accuracy. It is an issue many of our competitors will not touch.”

Szego’s interpretation of that conversation with Elligett this month differs.

“Patrick told me he could not publish my piece under my byline because it would damage the reputation of the masthead,” she said on Sunday. “I would suggest he’s damaged the masthead more by not publishing it.”

Szego said she received a text message from Elligett last week, informing her that she would no longer be writing for The Age ­because of her social media post about her “woke” colleagues.

“Obviously we can’t have our columnists publicly disparaging the publication like that so we won’t be commissioning further columns from you,” Elligett said.