Channel 4 deceives trans and non-binary contributors

 

  When it Comes to Trans and Non-Binary Lives, Channel , Once Again, Displays Unethical Behaviours

On Tuesday 30 May 2023, C4 is screening a documentary with the title ‘Gender Wars’.

We, the undersigned transgender and non-binary (TNB)people are featured in the documentary,

·   DID NOT AGREE to take part in the documentary viewers will see, and

·   would NOT HAVE AGREED to take part in any documentary focused on Kathleen Stock.

We wish to clarify to our peers within the TNB community that we were not told the true nature of the documentary. It was only on seeing the first preview, in late April, that we become aware of the true nature of the film. On seeing the previews  all shocked and have expressed our dismay and anger to those responsible. That has led to minor edits, but they are insufficient to change the primary narrative arc of the film.

Further information and background is given below our electronic signatures. 

Signatories (in no particular order)

Dr Finn Mackay, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England 

Dr Gina Gwenffrewi, Lecturer, University of Edinburgh 

Kass Caldicott, reading Law, Cambridge University

Andrew C, Norfolk

Lily, reading Mathematics, Cambridge University

Charlie C, Musical Director, Norfolk

Dr Stephen Whittle OBE, Emeritus Professor of Equalities Law, Manchester Metropolitan University 

1.     The Film We Agreed to Take Part In

Throughout 7 months of production, 

• C4 (who had editorial control[1]), 
• the production company Brook Lapping, 
• the Director of the film Pamela Gordon, and 
• the producer Carlo Lavarini, 

either by accident or design, misled the TNB participants as to the true nature of the film. 

None of us were informed that we would feature in a film about the gender critical feminist Kathleen Stock. 

Stephen Whittle originally declined to take part after his previous experience of working with C4 in 2018 on the much-critiqued Genderquake debate. That programme had ramped up the increasingly toxic rhetoric about the right to existence and non-discrimination of trans and non-binary people.

The gender critical journalist Julie Bindel, who Stephen has known for many years from her academic work on domestic violence, asked Stephen to reconsider.  Stephen was already in conversation with Julie about the need to calm the toxic rhetoric 'before someone gets seriously hurt'. 

On 06 October 2022 Pamela Gordon wrote to Prof. Stephen Whittle, saying:

"I have been asked to make a film for Channel 4 on the gender "debate". This will involve both the perspective of transgender people as well as those people who are gender critical. To be clear, I am interested in making a film which fully includes people's views, experiences and thoughts on both sides of this polarised issue." (by email to Stephen Whittle)

2.     Why We took Part in this Documentary.

Prof. Whittle and the other TNB people who eventually agreed to take part, did so after extensive prior discussion with the Director and Producer, and taking them at their word: that this documentary would be a film which:

“fully includes people's views, experiences and thoughts on both sides”.

All of us had growing concerns about the toxic gender critical rhetoric now being promoted by Government ministers and widely circulating in society and media.

We all made it clear in our conversations with Pamela Gordon that we wanted to move away from any debate or questioning of our lives, our existence, or our rights. We variously agreed to take part because:

• We wanted to ensure that trans voices did get heard,

• We are articulate, informed and knowledgeable about the rhetoric in the media and its impact locally and internationally,

• We wished to address the impact of the global move to remove the rights of trans people,

•  We felt it was possible to move to a more positive discussion between the “two sides” (gender critical people and trans people) about ways to combat men’s misogyny and violence toward both women and trans people.[2]

• We, naively as it turned out, believed the production team when they said they were aiming for a more positive discussion between the “two sides” (gender critical people and trans people), 

• At no time were we told, not even indirectly, that this was to be a documentary about Kathleen Stock and her apparent victimisation.

3.     What you will see in this documentary

On the documentary you will see many trans & non-binary (TNB) people & their allies. Most will be shown taking part in lawful but noisy protest. Only a few TNB people and one ally will speak, and only one is given any substantial opportunity to speak.

Whilst we accept that there is nothing wrong in the representation of us as the TNB people you will see speaking, most of these talking heads are short and feature without context in the documentary.  All of us spent up to a day or more filming, but our voices have been cut in such a way to diminish our many experiences of prejudice and discrimination, as compared to a narrative arc following Kathleen Stock’s apparent ‘suffering’ and victimhood.

On the 25 April 2023, Pamela Gordon showed a first preview of the film to Stephen Whittle and his wife, Sarah Rutherford. It was only at this point that Gorden informed them that Stock ‘features quite heavily in the first segment of the film’. In fact, Stock features throughout the documentary. Stock is the main character and she us platformed to narrate her story, as she sees it, of being a victim of “cancel culture” at the hands of trans rights activists.

As viewers watch the film, we feel that most will assume from the narrative arc:

• that this is a film about Kathleen Stock,

• that the protests at Sussex University were extreme and very threatening protests from masked activists, who are presented via the voiced-over narration as trans[3]. The implication is that intimidating protests by trans people forced Stock to leave her academic position,

• that Stock’s voice has been completely silenced i.e., cancelled. There is no acknowledgement that she has consequently maintained ongoing mass media coverage (including this documentary) for her views,

• that Stock continues to be unemployed; not that she chose to leave her job at Sussex University and within less than 2 weeks had accepted a lucrative post at the new anti-woke, ‘free speech’, aspiring private ‘University of Austin Texas’.

• that Stock is the only academic who has faced students protests for her views. Gordon filmed Stephen Whittle recounting his personal experience of students protesting inside his lectures and how he engaged with them on their anti-trans views, and how he did not have the choice of walking away from his job. As a trans man researching trans lives, he knew he would never be considered for another University post[4].

4.     Our Responses to the Film We Have Seen

Since we were shown previews of the documentary, each one of us have voiced our dismay and anger at the film to the production team.

--- We have sent a lengthy document to the production team outlining when and where we feel we were misinformed or misled at to the intended content and the aims of the documentary team.
--- We raised our concerns at how the film has been cut to remove all context of TNB people’s lives within an ongoing culture war that is actively targeting and removing trans people’s rights.

--- We also pointed out errors in the narration and how certain scenes run together to imply matters that are factually incorrect.

Our complaints have led to some minor edits, but these have not altered the narrative arc of the film.

5.     Specific ‘Errors’ in the Documentary

1. The first error or misdirection concerns a trans woman Isla Bryson who was recently convicted of rape. The voice-over suggests Bryson was held in a communal women’s prison, sharing space with imprisoned women. In fact, the Scottish Government followed the existing Prison Rules and their own legal guidance on case by case risk assessment. Bryson was held in segregation in the women’s prison estate, while that assessment was conducted. Bryson was then promptly moved to the male prison estate. These facts are left out, allowing the viewing public to imagine that a male rapist was put into communal spaces, shared cells and social spaces with vulnerable women prisoners.

2. The film has the journalist and gender critical feminist Julie Bindel discussing how allowing trans women into women's spaces will result in harm to women. The film then moves to news coverage of the Sarah Everard vigil. That implies some connection, but there is no connection. A non-trans (cis) man, and serving police officer, Wayne Cousins raped and murdered Everard. Trans people have no connection to the appalling, tragic, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

3. There is one significant and deliberate omission in the film. Several of us reminded the producer and director that in early 2023, there was coverage of a tragic murder which does have a connection to trans people: the horrific killing in Warrington of a young trans woman, 16yr old, Brianna Ghey. The documentary does not mention this. And whilst there is footage of protests by trans people and their allies, it does not show or mention the 50,000 plus trans people and allies who stood for several hours in the freezing temperatures of February, in silent candlelit vigil for Brianna, in more than 100 towns and cities across the UK.   

6.     In Conclusion

We took part in good faith hoping to find a way forward. We all had doubts about taking part, but in the end took the production team at their word.  

We were misled and misinformed. Unfortunately, C4 has behaved (again[5]) in an unforgiveable, unprincipled, and inexcusable way towards the trans and non-binary community. Its senior commissioners and managers have demonstrated a complete lack of ethics and shown that they have absolutely no respect for the rights of the trans & non-binary people that the company approaches to take part in its programming.

In short, none of us would have agreed to take part in a documentary about Kathleen Stock, who already enjoys a wide platform, and is far from cancelled or silenced; her views on trans exclusion are well-known and well publicised. None of us would have wished to further or legitimise those views.

Press Contact

write to Genderwars@proton.me

ENDNOTES

[1] Most of the TNB participants were led to believe Pamela Gordon as director had editorial control of the film. We were only informed that C4 had control at the end stages of production.

[2] Women, trans men and trans women have similar ‘lifetime sexual and/or physical abuse victimisation levels’ at around 80 to 85%. 

[3] The protests included TNB people but also many non-trans allies. The protests did not take place in  or directly outside Kathleen Stock’s lecture but some considerable distance away outside the library and administration blocks of Sussex University.

[4] Prof. Whittle has not been shortlisted for an academic post for more than 30 years, despite 4 degrees, being acknowledged as one of the world’s leading experts in TNB law, achieving a Chair in law at MMU within 10 years of completing his PhD, along with many national and international awards for his legal work with governments across the world and in international courts to develop a framework of rights for TNB people. He has received awards for his publications and his research for organisations such as the Home Office, the EHRC, and the Council of Europe. In 2005 he received an OBE for what has now been more than 45 years of voluntary work with the TNB community, and with the British government.

[5] In 2018, C4 screened the live ‘Genderquake Debate’. C4 flew Caitlyn Jenner over to take part and one assumes paid a considerable fee for her time. The day after the life screening of the Genderquake debate, C4 had arranged for Jenner to give its annual diversity lecture to the House of Lords. Trans man, founder of Press For Change, and Professor of Equalities Law, Stephen Whittle wrote a primer for Caitlyn’s speeches. He did not receive a fee, but he agreed as he would rather Jenner had an accurate understanding of what was happening in the UK.

A couple of minutes before filming started a group of anti-trans gender critical activists were admitted to the venue and given prime front row seats. Every time Munroe Bergdorf or Caitlyn Jenner tried to speak they started shouting ‘you’re a man’ but by half way through they resorted to shouting ‘penis’. At each break in filming the trans speakers asked C4 to either evict the hecklers or stop the filming. The programme crew refused to do so. The programme was widely seen as  disastrous and once again a wasted opportunity to try and have a conversation between different standpoints on trans inclusion and trans rights. Instead the programme ramped up the already toxic and febrile rhetoric of prejudice that was beginning to pervade the UK and other western democracies. That rhetoric has not just led to loss of dignity, respect and basic civil rights for many trans people; in some cases it has meant the loss of a life.