The alleged debate around gender identity and its intersection with sex based rights has become a toxic space of transphobia. 

The Morning Star has repeatedly allowed people to post Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist ideology in its paper. On 22/02/20, a cartoon was printed by the Morning Star which depicted a crocodile getting in to a pond of newts. 

Newts: "But - You can't come in here, this is our safe space!" 

Crocodile: "Don't worry your pretty little heads! I am transitioning as a newt!" 

We, the undersigned, believe this is an abhorrent form of transphobia that undermines the protections and the rights that we believe the trans community must have. 

We are disappointed that, according to its 2018 return, the Morning Star had a number of trade unions on its management committee (those we are petitioning above).

As a registered mutual society, the Morning Star claims that it "produced a daily newspaper under the strapline 'For peace and socialism' and reported on the social and political developments as well as the plights and struggles of people trying to achieve a safer and fairer world". 

We believe that The Morning Star has gone against those principles and needs to be held to account. 

We petition the trade unions above to distance themselves from the publication in a public way as we all recognise that transphobia is abhorrent and that equality is one of the fundamental principles of our trade unions.