Human Rights Campaign Calls Out Transphobic Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Column

In letter to paper's executive editor, HRC Foundation Director Jay Brown calls column by Jennifer Graham "despicably offensive and inaccurate" and seeks her removal

WASHINGTON - June 5, 2015 – Today, in light of a national outcry about a deeply transphobic column published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 4th, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's Director of Research and Public Education Jay Brown, himself a former Pittsburgh resident of 6 years and a transgender man, wrote to the paper's executive editor David Shribman and called for consequences for the column's author, Jennifer Graham:

"Graham not only failed to offer any information of value to your readership, she openly spewed lies and misinformation about transgender people—a community that disproportionately experiences harassment, unemployment, discrimination and violence," Brown wrote. "Rather than offer an informed opinion on the news of the day—in particular, the very public coming out of Caitlyn Jenner—Ms. Graham chose only to expose her personal animus toward a particular group of people. […] Ms. Graham has no business serving as a columnist at a publication with a reputation as sterling like yours. Instead, lift up a Pittsburgh voice that has something meaningful to say."

The complete letter can be found here. On the same day, HRC submitted an op-ed to the paper, seeking to rebut the claims made in Graham's column. At the time of this writing, the organization has not yet received a response.

The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.