A bullied schoolchild isn't usually news, but for one ten-year-old in Worcester it was enough to make the front pages this autumn. She had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria during the summer holidays. With the backing of the school, she was starting the new term as a girl - and being bullied by parents as a result. 

The Metro, for one, wrote a generally sympathetic piece; however, online comments spread through social networks quickly criticised a few inaccurate elements. The paper subsequently amended the story.  Other report in the national media were less forgiving and less willing to change.  For Paris Lees, from the advocacy group Trans Media Watch, the story is symptomatic of the media's current attitude to transgender people. "We're still at the stage where stories are about pointing and staring, " she says. "Some progress has been made but it is very slow. You feel you are chipping away at a mountain.

The full story is available in the December 2011 / January 2012 issue of "The Journalist", the magazine of the national Union of Journalists - see pages 12-13
http://issuu.com/nujupload/docs/journalist_decjan