The Caroline Lowbridge Article: BBC-Approved Transphobia and the Law

On 26 October 2021, BBC News published an article by Caroline Lowbridge claiming

that lesbians are ‘being pressured into sex with trans women’, painting a worrying picture of

transgender women being predatory and dangerous [1].

International human rights law is supposed to help prevent such discriminatory statements [2].

So why was a mainstream media outlet like the BBC allowed to publish such materials in the

deadliest year for transgender people since records began? [3] The defence given by those in

support of the article is the right to freedom of expression allowing a variety of views [4].

Therefore, it becomes a precarious balancing act between preventing censorship and the right

not to have your identity discriminated against on the public news.

In the UK, freedom of expression is essential to our democracy. However, this is not an

absolute right. Where there is an entanglement of competing rights, this can justify limitation

in order to protect the other rights involved [5]. However, the legal definition of discrimination

is where somebody is treated less favourably because of a ‘protected characteristic’ (e.g

gender). It is unclear whether Lowbridge’s accusatory statements and cruel words are enough

to legally constitute discrimination [6]. This means that this is likely to be a question of i

interpretation.

As views on gender and gender-based discrimination in the UK continue to change, the law

should reflect this change and protect marginalised groups by taking more action to prevent

offensive and discriminatory articles rather than leaving this important issue up for debate.

[1] Caroline Lowbridge, ‘We’re Being Pressured Into Sex By Some Trans Women’ (BBC News, 26

October 2021) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57853385> accessed 27

November 2021.

[2] European Convention on Human Rights, art 14; Human Rights Act 1998, sch 1, art 14; Equality Act 2010, ss 7, 11.

[3] Trans Respect Versus Transphobia, ‘TMM Update TDoR 2021’ (11 November 2021)

<https://transrespect.org/en/tmm-update-tdor-2021/> accessed 27 November 2021.

[4] Jim Waterson, ‘BBC Rejects Complaints that it Published Transphobic Article’ (The Guardian,

1 November 2021) <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/nov/01/bbc-rejects-complaints-that-it-published-transphobic-article> accessed 27 November 2021.

[5] European Convention on Human Rights, art 10(2); Andrew Nicol, Media Law and Human Rights (2nd edn, OUP 2009).

[6] Equality Act 2010, s 13(1).