he Equalities and Human Rights Commission is supposed to be Britain's official equalities watchdog, but after u-turning on trans rights - after a series of Tory appointments and its former chair warning it was under political pressure to back the government agenda - it's been engulfed in scandal.Investigative work by journalist Ben Hunte has uncovered private meetings between the EHRC and anti-trans rights organisations, while whistleblowers have told him about an anti-LGBTQ culture at the organisation and a failure to recognise racism, leading to an exodus of staff. Ben Hunte joins us to tell us the details, and we're joined by trans commentator Katy Montgomerie to put it all into context.Plus: after author Kate Clanchy piled on a reviewer who pointed out racist and bigoted passages in her books - which she falsely claimed she hadn't written - the author has been turned into a martyr, while women of colour who spoke out about it - and the racism of the wider British publishing industry - have been vilified and dogpiled. We speak to celebrated author Monisha Rajesh who has been viciously trolled online over the saga to tell us the truth.Please subscribe - and help us take on the right wing media: https://patreon.com/owenjones84Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.