Talk:Death of Lucy Meadows

Title of article
I think the title of the article should be adjusted to "Death of Lucy Meadows" as Lucy Meadows is not notable for any events preceding her death and the press attention that lead to it. Excluding her death I doubt that Lucy Meadows would have met Wikipedia's notability requirements even if the articles from the Daily Mail were counted. There are a wide variety of people covered by the Mail who are absolutely not famous or notable, add to this the Mail's well known lax editorial standards and it's official deprecation as a source including for notability. All the article's sources are about her death.

I also think the article should be reformatted into sections as the current format bounces between events at the time and the evaluation of those events in post by the sources a more apprpraite format might be:

-Background-

Lucy Meadows was a transgender teacher from Accrington in the United Kingdom. Meadows grew up in a Christian family and married her partner Ruth Smith in 2009, prior to transitioning. Meadows and Smith separated in 2011, and at Christmas 2012, Meadows told her school about the transition.

-Press Coverage of her transition-

When the school sent an announcement to parents of her transition local and national media outlets began to cover it as well as her return to a position as a teacher. In particular the Daily Mail collumnist Richard Littlejohn wrote an article repeatedly misgendering Meadows and criticising her decision to return to her job as a teacher.

On 3 January 2013, Meadows complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) of "harassment from the press", specifically mentioning the Littlejohn article.

-Death and Coroners Inquest-

In March 2013, Meadows was found dead as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. At the inquest into Meadows' death, the coroner criticised the press for their handling of the story. According to the Guardian, he "singled out the Daily Mail as he accused the paper of 'ridicule and humiliation' and a 'character assassination' of Lucy Meadows". The coroner recommended that guidelines about press intrusion into the lives of the public be tightened.

-Reactions to her death-

According to Lucy's ex wife Ruth Smith coverage by the Daily Mail among others was used to "attack a woman who wanted only to live her life in peace."

Writing in The Guardian, Paris Lees stated that Meadows had been "persecuted by the press" after her local newspaper reported on her transition.

A petition drive was launched demanding Littlejohn be sacked. Two petitions signed by over 240,000 people were handed over to the Daily Mail offices.

-end-

Overall I think this article could do with some love, I'm happy to make the necessary changes if someone can confirm that it would be appropriate for an article this short to be split into sections. Giorgio elgar (talk) 01:13, 18 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I've done this now Giorgio elgar (talk) 21:44, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Projects
I think it would be appropriate to take this page out of the biographies project and attach the Discrimination, LGBT Studies and Gender Studies projects Giorgio elgar (talk) 01:19, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: COMP II
— Assignment last updated by Jwerry98 (talk) 15:49, 2 April 2024 (UTC)