THE BBC has changed an article branded transphobic after one of the contributors said she would “execute every last [trans women] personally” if it were up to her.
The article in question, titled “'We're being pressured into sex by some trans women” was originally published by the corporation on October 26.
It was met with intense backlash, with the BBC being accused of failing to meet journalistic standards. Concern largely centred around the citation of a poll of just 80 people which was distributed via social media as evidence of lesbians “being pressured or coerced to accept a trans woman as a sexual partner”.
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An open letter signed by 20,000 people called on the BBC to apologise for the article, but the corporation insisted its publication fit within its impartiality rules.
Further issues were raised after Lily Cade, a lesbian porn star who was quoted in the piece, posted extreme transphobia on her blog, which had sat unused for two years before being restarted to address her appearance in the BBC article.
In several pieces posted across a few days, Cade called trans women “vile, weak and disgusting” and said she would personally “execute every last one of them” if it were up to her.
She also called for famous trans women, including Caitlyn Jenner (below) and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, to be lynched.
After an intense backlash called on the BBC to amend their article and remove Cade’s contribution, the corporation has now caved.
Amending the piece on its site to remove any mention of Cade, the BBC added a correction.
This reads: “Update 4 November 2021: We have updated this article, published last week, to remove a contribution from one individual in light of comments she has published on blog posts in recent days, which we have been able to verify.”
It goes on: “We acknowledge that an admission of inappropriate behaviour by the same contributor should have been included in the original article.”
This is an apparent reference to allegations previously levelled against Cade by other women in the adult entertainment industry.
One Chelsea Poe, a trans porn star, claimed on Twitter that she had made the BBC aware of these allegations when contacted before the article’s publication, but no mention of Poe was made in the piece.
The Guardian reported that a BBC source confirmed this.
That paper also reported that Cade acknowledged the allegations made against her and apologised, saying she believed the encounters had been consensual and had stopped working after the allegations were made.
The National had previously contacted the BBC about the piece, but no response was forthcoming. They have since sent on the comment included in the amended article, alongside the line: "This is an important piece of journalism that raises issues that should be discussed."
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