After writing a Guardian piece in which she was accused of “transphobic comments”, Suzanne Moore has spoken out in a Daily Mail column.
On Wednesday, The Daily Mail published an article on Suzanne Moore, now a former Guardian journalist following her resignation, after “bullying” colleagues expressed outrage towards her views on trans rights.
According to Moore, she had been “fobbed off” by her Editor with a lunch, rather than standing up to alleged “bullies”.
She told The Telegraph: “I naively thought I would be defended because that’s what always happened at other newspapers.
“I thought a public statement would be issued making clear this letter-writing business was not on.”
The article that Moore published was not attacking trans women, but raising concern with the transgender community over whether women’s rights may be affected.
She also claims that there is a culture of fear at The Guardian, which proudly claims to be a guide for liberalism and tolerance.
The controversial views, labelled by some as transphobic, came in her article titled “Women must have the right to organise. We will not be silenced”, in which she wrote about gender being a biological classification, “not a feeling”.
In the face of the backlash, Moore said: “It’s as if it were Mein Kampf.”
338 Guardian “bullies” signed a letter expressing the desire for the columnist to be sacked and 3 had allegedly resigned before Moore, as a result of her comments.
In her Daily Mail column, written on Wednesday, she said that whenever she has made reference to the ‘trans debate’ in her Guardian articles before, they had “disappeared”.
Continuing, she said that her editors would say it “didn’t really add to the argument”.
Despite winning the Orwell Prize for political journalism, one editor told her that she “shouldn’t touch politics”, but instead stick to ‘lifestyle’ pieces.
Moore also explained about her experiences of sexism at The Guardian in the 1990s, having won Columnist of the Year at the British Press Awards.
Peter Preston, then Editor, said: “It must be nice to be lady columnist. You can write about painting your toenails.”
According to Moore, she never felt as though she fitted in at The Guardian.
