Transgender activists praise Independent on Sunday for Pink List selection

Leading figures in the transgender community have praised the The Independent on Sunday for naming a transgender person at No 1 on its Pink List of Britain’s 101 most influential LBGT people.

The list was topped by Paris Lees, the journalist, broadcaster, campaigner and editor of Meta magazine, for her work in “leading a slow but determined change in attitudes” towards the transgender community.

Janet Scott, a spokesperson for the Beaumont Society, the UK’s largest and longest established transgender support group, welcomed the decision, saying Lees was a “wonderful ambassador, who sends out the right message about transgender people”.

Bernard Reed, a trustee of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) who was awarded an OBE in 2010 for his work in the field, said he was “delighted”. “It is really heartening that a trans person has been recognised in this way. So many campaign actively and at great personal risk for the benefit of the trans community.”

Our sister paper’s 2013 Pink List featured a host of transgender people, including the Miss England entrant Jackie Green, the Lib Dem Cambridge councillor Sarah Brown, Roz Kaveney, the poet, and the Big Brother contestant Luke Anderson.