Around Two Hundred and Fifty People Unite In front of the Daily Mail offices in London for the candle-lit vigil for Transgender Teacher found dead at her home.
A gathering of around 250-300, from all walks of life, braved the near sub zero temperatures in London this evening in solidarity with the transgender community, to pay respects and to mark a vigil for teacher, Lucy Meadows, 32, who was found dead at her home last Tuesday.
The Vigil which was dubbed a ‘vigil against monstering’ was aimed at the Daily Mail and its columnist Richard Littlejohn, who prompted an angry outburst after the emergence of an article entitled ‘He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job’.
Daily Mail have since removed the column, however a cache copy of the article remains here: http://web.archive.org/web/20121221195332/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2251347/Nathan-Uptons-wrong-body–hes-wrong-job.html
It’s claimed that following Littlejohn’s column, Meadows, who was transitioning at the time, was routinely hounded by the press. In a New Year’s Day email to a friend, reported by the Guardian, Meadows complained that the media had published one of her wedding photos, and had lifted other photos from her siblings’ Facebook pages. She described the lengths she had taken to avoid being photographed. “I became pretty good at avoiding the press before Christmas. I live about a three-minute walk from school so they were parked outside my house as well as school. I’m just glad they didn’t realise I also have a back door. I was usually in school before the press arrived and stayed until latest I could avoid them going home.”
Speakers at the event included journalist and activist Jane Fey and Natasha Kennedy, who works in trans activism. Graham Jones the MP for Haslingden and Hyndburn, the constituency in which Miss Meadows lived, also made an appearance.
He tweeted: “Just raised the death of #lucymeadows in the House of Commons. Universal sympathy. Speaker described such journalist actions as despicable.”
Creators of the Facebook events page, Theresa Heath and Puja Maniar, said: “It was so spontaneous and I think shows a real feeling that people are sick to death of it. The trans community has been absolutely trashed by certain sections of the media, and everybody is thinking this has just got to stop.”
Jane Fae tried to get a comment from the Daily Mail, but they wouldn’t talk to her.
Two online petitions calling for Littlejohn to be fired by the Daily Mail and issue a formal apology have received huge support over the weekend.
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-daily-mail-fire-richard-littlejohn-for-victimizing-lucy-meadows-leading-to-her-possible-suicide
http://action.sumofus.org/a/daily-mail-littlejohn-lucy-meadows/1/1/?sub=homepage
Combined the two e-petitions have garnered over 162, 922 signatures.
