New York Post Barred From GLAAD Media Awards Due To 'Anti-Transgender Coverage'

One venerable publication won't be among the many media outlets assembled on the red carpet at the 2013 GLAAD Media Awards in New York March 16.

GLAAD officials say they've turned down a press pass request for the event from the New York Post because of the newspaper's refusal to discuss "its history of anti-transgender coverage."

A post on GLAAD's official website points to recent Post articles, with headlines like "Bravest gets off easy on she-male beat," and "Beat-down tranny testifies in court," as part of the group's incentive to bar the publication.

"The Post has been digging its feet in the ground for too long on this issue," GLAAD President Herndon Graddick is quoted as saying. "Transgender people, particularly those who are victims of crime, deserve more than the vile slurs and underhanded 'jokes' with which the Post describes them. Until this paper changes its ways and apologizes for the damage done, GLAAD has no interest in supporting their work."

Transgender actress and activist Laverne Cox has similarly been critical of the Post's coverage of transgender issues. "We must dismantle the systemic transphobia and transmisogyny that sanctions this kind of violence," she wrote in a blog for HuffPost Gay Voices in December 2012.

HuffPost Gay Voices has reached out to the New York Post and is currently awaiting comment.

The GLAAD Media Awards ceremony will feature celebrity guests like Madonna, who will be on hand to present the prestigious Vito Russo Award to Anderson Cooper.