A Tasmanian council has been bombarded with phone calls and emails after a newspaper published a letter describing an incident caused by a man entering female change rooms at a swimming pool — except the incident did not happen.
The letter, published on Tuesday in Launceston's Examiner, was quickly re-shared on social media by trans-exclusionary groups, with one post viewed 74,000 times on Twitter and another shared 160 times on Facebook.
A Tasmanian community page also posted the letter, with 150 shares.
The letter claimed a man had started to undress in front of children in the female change rooms at Launceston aquatic centre before he was forcibly removed by another patron.
It further claimed that staff at the council-run centre did not respond because the person identifies as a female.
The letter was featured under the headline "Girls getting changed, then in walks a man".
The city of Launceston released a statement the same day, stating the letter had no basis in fact and that no such incident had occurred at the facility.
Mayor Danny Gibson confirmed the council had never received a complaint about a transgender woman using female change rooms.
"Disappointingly, the newspaper made no attempt to check the veracity of the letter with the council," he said.
"The publishing of this letter has, as you could expect, resulted in considerable angst and grief for council staff, particularly those at the front desk, at the aquatic centre, and indeed those on the ends of the telephone, who continue to be the subject of ongoing abuse.
"I know I have, and I'm sure other councillors have also received additional information and letters concerning this, the tone of which is less than desirable."
Comments expressing transphobic sentiment were also present on social media posts.
The Examiner editor Mark Westfield said he was solely responsible for the selection and placement of letters, and that he did not have time to check the claims that were made.
"It seemed to be, obviously, someone very upset about the situation. She wrote about the experience", he said.
"I have to trust my readers. 99.99 per cent of letters I'm pretty confident are correct.
"This person who claimed to have walked in was clearly a trans person. This person claimed to be upset about it.
"I spoke to the writer. I think she made it up. She wasn't very convincing. I asked her what happened, to give me some detail, a time, date, but she wouldn't."
The Examiner published a clarification on Wednesday, stating, "unfortunately we appear to have been misled", and that "after inquiries with the letter writer the Examiner has concerns that the letter contained incorrect information".
The council remained unsatisfied, with councillor Hugh McKenzie saying it was "hidden down the bottom and you wouldn't have even seen it".
Mr Westfield was appointed editor of the Examiner — Tasmania's second-largest newspaper, and Australia's third oldest — in December.
He was a former media adviser to prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Mr Westfield also advocated for the preselection of failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves at last year's federal election and served as her campaign manager and media adviser.
'Examiner did all it could in the circumstances'
The letter writer said they believed the incident happened to a friend.
"This did not happen to me, but to a friend who is going to seek action through the council as well as the aquatic centre Launceston", they wrote.
In an Examiner article published on Friday, Mr Westfield is quoted as saying "as soon as it was found out the letter contained false claims it was removed from the masthead's website".
"The Examiner publishes letters from its readers in good faith. It is impossible to check them if they contain accounts of personal experiences, as many do, " he said.
"The Examiner did all it could in the circumstances."
'Important to be vigilant'
Tasmania's strong anti-discrimination laws are a legacy of the state's late decision, in 1997, to decriminalise homosexuality. They cover discrimination based on gender, gender identity, intersex variations and sexual orientation.
The laws have faced several challenges in recent years, including from a lesbian woman in Launceston – with support from the LGB Alliance – which attempted to exclude "biological men" from an event on the basis of sex. This failed, as "sex" is not a proscribed attribute under Tasmania's anti-discrimination laws.
The state's planning tribunal found there was no evidence in Launceston of any need to exclude people from the event, and that the case did a great disservice to transgender and transsexual communities.
Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rose Boccalatte said the Examiner letter had undertones of other campaigns that had attempted to sway public opinion regarding transgender people in Tasmania.
Tasmania is a particular target because "we have such progressive legislation for gender identity and anti-discrimination. We're world-leading in that regard", she said.
"If any kind of pushback to these laws is successful in Tasmania, it demonstrates that it can happen anywhere. That's why it's really important for us to be vigilant."
Ms Boccalatte said the sentiment was concerning.
"We've seen it in the past with the marriage equality postal survey, that queer people definitely see an uptick in abuse, seeing their rights debated in public is very damaging for their wellbeing.
"Trans rights are being debated as if they're optional, as if it's optional that I can use a certain bathroom. It can certainly lead to harassment and vilification."
Premier Jeremy Rockliff regularly publicly defends Tasmania's anti-discrimination laws, which have bipartisan support.
