Society failed Lucy Meadows

Society needed Lucy Meadows. Lucy was a teacher in Accrington, Lancashire, skilled, qualified, well-loved by her pupils and the community. Last year Lucy went in to hospital for a routine operation and returned to the same school after Christmastime in recovery.

Absurdly, Lucy’s health and personal employment decisions were considered fodder for national headlines and became a ball of yarn for that unrelenting claw of painful media speculation, which can drag along its victims for months.

Lucy had returned from a gender re-assignment operation. The change was explained in a school assembly and subsequently the press interrogated her personal and professional life.

Recently she was found dead. The circumstances are highly indicative of suicide, a startling but not uncommon recourse for people with gay or transgendered identities: 1 in 3 will attempt it, 2 in 5 will think about it often.

Enormous psychological distress comes when trying to mediate an identity outside that assigned to you by society and the pain is compounded by negative reactions from the public.

Real persecution is then internalized, leading to a severe decline in mental health. I can not imagine how stressful this must cycle must have been for Lucy, particularly when patriarchy greeted her with a ruthless hunt for pictures of her post-operation body.

At best the media’s obsession with Lucy was stigmatizing, because a human comrade ‘other’ed by society had one of the most profoundly challenging – but potentially liberating and beautiful – times of their life turned in to a cheap buck and a spectacle. At its worst the media levelled cold, callous and unashamed persecution.

Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn’s rant about Lucy’s decision to return to the same school was a rotten, bullying piece, which spelt out his vile belief that transgender is pernicious and offensive.

He questioned Lucy’s professional competence and suggested her return jeopardised the children’s education and well-being. Tellingly, he mocked her school’s proud statement of “commitment to diversity and tolerance.”

Against the odds, knowing the trials ahead, Lucy decided to live out her true inner life and identity in public, an act of bravery and dignity which set an example to her students, and society at large, if we’d care to stop, listen and learn, that is.

If Lucy had lived a full life, thousands of students would have benefited from her talents and insights. If she’d so wished, they could have learnt more about her experience of gender and taken a more knowledgeable, respectful attitude in to society with them. Littlejohn didn’t want them to have the chance of receiving that priceless education.

As Leveson has shown, the media intrudes upon innocent lives no end, for any story to stoke reactionary, intolerant audiences, who’ll frantically part with cash for any sloppy word-gruel like Littlejohn’s, which will reaffirm their cherished prejudice. Society needed Lucy Meadows and so did her pupils, but a great, brave teacher has been lost forever, simply because our media is not yet mature enough to honour the idea that treat every individual deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.

If you share the view that Richard Littlejohn deserves to lose the privilege of a mass media platform for his bullying attack piece, which had a devastating effect on Lucy’s life, please sign this petition and pressure the Daily Mail to sack him.

If you or someone you know is affected by these issues and need to talk to someone urgently, the Samaritans is available 24 hours a day on 08457 90 90 90; or email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans’ website