Lilly Wachowski: LGBT organisation GLAAD condemns outing of The Matrix film-maker

GLAAD has released guidelines for media after Wachowski said she was pressured into talking about her transition

Lilly (formerly Andy) Wachowski came out in a statement to Windy City Times, after being doorstepped by a reporter (Lilly Wachowksi / The Windy City Times www.windycitymediagroup.com)

An LGBT advocacy group has condemned media organisations who out transgender people after The Matrix film-maker Lilly Wachowski said she was effectively forced to come about her identity as a transgender woman.

Wachowski announced her transition in an essay entitled: “Sex Change Shocker — Wachowski Brothers Now Sisters,” for the Windy City Times, an LGBT weekly newspaper in Chicago. The 48-year-old said her announcement came after a year of being threatened with being outed by the media. While premature for her, she said it was necessary to tell her own story after a journalist from the Daily Mail approached her at her home on Monday.

DailyMail.com has categorically denied suggestions it forced Wachowski to come out about her transition.

A spokesman said: “As Wachowski says herself, we were not the first media group which approached her and we made absolutely clear at several points in the conversation that we were only interested in doing the story with her cooperation and had no intention of publishing anything without her consent.

“Our reporter was extremely sympathetic and courteous at all times. We are baffled as to why Ms Wachowski has reacted as she has but we wish her well with her journey.”

Suggestions that the newspaper effectively outed her has provoked strong condemnation from the public and GLAAD, an organisation based in the US. ”GLAAD is thrilled that Lilly Wachowski is able to be her true and authentic self today, however, she should not have been forced to disclose her transgender identity before she was ready to do so. Journalists must learn that it is unacceptable to out a transgender person, in the same way it is unacceptable to out a person who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual,“ Nick Adams, GLAAD's Director of Programs for Transgender Media, said in a statement.

GLAAD has also responded by issuing guidelines for the media on how to report on her transition. While GLAAD directs this guidance at the press, these points are also important to remember in order to talk about her transition or any transgender person on a public forum respectfully.

Key points to remember include:

• Always use female pronouns to describe her.
• Avoid using Wachowski’s prior name even when referring to past events, apart from to explain to readers who she is on first mention. This would be along the lines of ‘Lilly Wachowski, formerly known as Any Wachowski’.
• Only using transgender as an adjective, so describing Wachowski as ‘a transgender woman’ not ‘a transgender’. 
• Only referring to her female identity as her gender identity, not her sexual orientation.
• Don't speculate on the surgeries she or any transgender person may have had. Operations are not necessary for someone to be transgender. 
• Don’t comment on how well appearance after a person's transition conforms to conventional standards of masculinity or femininity.