Dear Rainbow Collective,

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to answer your petition.

The Morning Star apologises unreservedly for the cartoon to which you refer, which we recognise was harmful and distressing to trans people.

We are determined to uphold the rights of all marginalised and oppressed groups and staff have been reviewing our coverage of these matters as we recognise this has not always reflected the concerns of trans readers. We tried to address the way we might start to do this here https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/we-failed-our-duty-equality-and-liberation

We acknowledge the harm caused by transphobia and published a communication from a trans reader at the weekend on the subject (https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/how-transphobia-hurts

The PPPS management committee has announced an independent investigation into how the cartoon came to be published which will report to it on what steps the Morning Star needs to take to ensure this never happens again.

Regards

The Morning Star team