A transgender rights activist who has repeatedly tried to launch legal action against Australian media outlets has had her latest complaint thrown out of court.
Claire Southey, director of Rainbow Rights Watch, lodged her failed complaint about an article published by the Herald Sun that reported on a petition by female inmates at a women’s prison demanding the removal of a transgender inmate who had a history of violent sexual offending.
Victorian woman Mel Jefferies, who spent 10 years identifying as a man before detransitioning in 2021, slammed the lobby group after the failed vilification claim.
The claim related to a 2022 article that outlined pleas by prisoners at Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre to relocate the inmate on safety grounds.
The trans prisoner had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in a Richmond street in 2011, and also spent time in a European jail for a child-sex offence.
Ms Southey’s complaint argued the article uncritically repeated claims that the person’s trans status caused other inmates to feel “unsafe”, “threatened” and “traumatised”.
But the tribunal dismissed Ms Southey’s claim, finding the article did not vilify transgender people or link gender identity with criminal behaviour.
In May last year, Ms Southey lost a legal battle against the Australian Press Council over the publication of stories she claimed “perpetuate discrimination” against trans people.
Ms Jefferies told the Herald Sun she was tired of seeing the legal system used to punish those with fair objections.
The fierce campaigner has been pushing back against trans healthcare, particularly the gender affirmation model, after having her breasts surgically removed in 2017 under the advice of medical experts.
Ms Jefferies pointed to a widely distributed document by lobby group the Trans Justice Project urging people to make complaints about “anti-trans media”.
“They’re trying to silence critics of the movement,” she said.
Source: Detransitioner blasts activist‘s bid to ‘silence’ media as legal complaint fails