Transgender Journalist Wasn’t called “A Thing,” Statement Issued

Earlier this week, Kotaku ran a story about how a comedian at the Xbox One presentation at Eurogamer humiliated a transgender journalist. Laura Kate Dale, a transgender woman, claimed to have been called “he,” “it,” and “a thing,” by Fraser Millward as he hosted an Xbox One event last weekend. In an official statement issued by both of them earlier today, this was shown to be untrue. Instead, it’s a case of them misunderstanding one another and overreacting.

The statement:

Laura Kate Dale and Fraser Millward have come to agree that the situation which took place at the Xbox stand at Eurogamer on Sunday 29th September was an unfortunate misunderstanding on both sides. It has now been made clear that Fraser did not refer to Laura as an ‘it’ or a ‘thing’ or a ‘he’, and these claims have now been fully retracted by Laura and she is sorry for the hurt this caused. Fraser caused offence to Laura on stage when he publicly misgendered her by addressing her as ‘this person’. Laura was also upset by statements which she saw as suggesting that she was not female. Fraser is sorry he said this, and for the pain he inadvertently caused Laura. Both parties wish to put the situation behind them and consider this matter now resolved.

The worst thing about this situation was watching more or less everybody freak out about it. On one side, people were calling to have Fraser banned from performing in a “decent” place ever again, saying that he was obviously a terrible comedian and should just stop. On the other hand, people took to Twitter to attack Laura, not for doing anything in particular, but just for being who she is. Meanwhile, anybody who hated Microsoft took it as a chance to call them out on “yet another misguided decision.” 

What’s there to learn from this situation? Don’t take to Twitter if you’re angry, don’t ever believe stories based only on the statements of one half of a dispute, and don’t try and put your own personal agenda into comments on something deeply personal on the internet.