Oh dear. It seems that life in the offices of the world’s wokest paper isn’t all its cracked up to be. For the Guardian’s sister paper – with which it shares an office – has been accused of ‘institutionalised transphobia’ by a disgruntled former writer. James Wong, the Observer’s garden columnist departed last week with a parting shot at his onetime employer. He wrote on Instagram that he left after being reprimanded by an editor for publicly criticising one of his paper’s articles about trans rights:

After formally complaining about an article that likened politicians who support trans rights to alleged sex traffickers, the editor ignored my complaint and reprimanded me for revealing that I had even made it.

And underneath a similar post on Twitter he responded to a tweet asking what is ‘wrong with the Observer‘ with the retort ‘Institutionalised transphobia.’ Wong was criticising an article written in January by columnist Catherine Bennett, headlined: ‘Forget Andrew Tate – what about the host of misogynists in Labour’s ranks?’ in which she condemned Labour MPs Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Ben Bradshaw over their views on trans rights and their comments about female MPs.

On Twitter, Wong wrote at the time that: ‘As a columnist at the Observer, I have written to them to express my shock. This is completely unacceptable.’ As Press Gazette notes, this tweet appears to have put him on the wrong side of the company’s social media policy, which tells its journalists ‘it is never acceptable to criticise colleagues on social media either directly or indirectly.’ Wong said on Saturday he had been told by an editor that the tweet breached ‘my requirement to “abide by social media guidelines” and that “this is a serious matter”.’ The reprimand, coupled by the lack of a reply to his complaint, appears to have prompted Wong to resign.

This incident, as Mr S has previously reported, is by no means a one-off. In 2019, two staff members at the Graun quit the paper, accusing it of transphobic reporting while Suzanne Moore left the following year after claiming she was ‘bullied’ by a letter signed by 338 colleagues condemning a ‘pattern of publishing transphobic content’ at the company.

Somehow Steerpike thinks Wong’s departure might not be the last…