Last night, I slouched in the center row of a mostly empty theatre while a gaggle of teen queers passed around a fuzzy microphone, reflecting on the importance of the Gay-Straight Alliance at their local high schools.
A teen with flamingo-pink leggings and immaculate eye makeup stood to address the crowd. "I don't know if you guys watch TV," they said, "but you've probably heard of Chaz Bono."
The audience cooed.
"Most of the things I've found online about him are ugly and bigoted and awful. People call Chaz 'she,' and people call Chaz 'it.' Chaz is not an 'it.' Chaz is a man. When is this going to stop?" the high schooler begged. "I am a transgender person. And the things I hear about transgender people and read about us in the news hurt. Treatment of gay and lesbian people have changed a lot, but respect for transgender people is really far behind."
This young-adult queer very clearly articulated to a room full of dumfounded adults how they are failed by consistently negative and uninformed media coverage of trans and gender-variant people. I couldn't help but hang my head.
I am a thread -- albeit tiny -- in the current media fabric. I work as a professional reporter and writer, and I am also a flaming gay, glitter-loving transgender person.
Last week, I was disgusted by the media's response to coverage of Tammy Lobel, an 11-year-old transgender girl who was recently featured in a CNN article titled "Transgender kids: Painful quest to be who they are." The article detailed the use of hormone blockers as part of "gender identity disorder" treatment for some underage kids.
Fox News in particular -- no surprise there -- launched an attack on Tammy's parents, who are, coincidently, lesbian-identified and therefore, according to Fox, are making Tammy into their own image of sapphic femininity. The article screamed of "child abuse."
But Fox News is only the most obvious media specter. An overwhelming majority of news media have fallen short of earnest reportage by sticking with transgender story headlines that read like: sex, hate crime, job discrimination, sex, death, jail, sex, suicide, porn, child abuse, sex, sex.
And unfortunately, using "it" as a pronoun for trans people is not at all uncommon. Recently, in an episode of the USA Network show Psyche, a main character proclaimed, "Forget about her, or him, or it -- if it's transgender." (Screen shots here.)
Last February, GLADD published an article titled "Ignorance of Transgender Issues Apparent in Media" after a now-infamous Saturday Night Live skit that openly mocked trans women on hormones.
"The media's main problem -- and its biggest responsibility -- both come from the fact that it delivers the vast majority of the messages the public receives about what it actually means to be transgender," wrote Aaron McQuade, GLAAD's Deputy Director of News and Field Media. "The simple fact is that an overwhelming majority of Americans simply don't know any transgender people. According to a study we commissioned in 2008, only eight percent of Americans said they knew someone who was transgender."
And maybe even more troubling is the percentage of actual trans people behind the making of news -- just in case you weren't sure, it's jaw-droppingly low.
As a budding reporter, the only reference point I had for a writer like me was that of a Los Angeles Times sports correspondent who came out as trans and then, horrifically, committed suicide.
Because of sheer oversaturation, I imagine that someday we will move away from the trans narrative that is now so familiar to us: a white, privileged person is "trapped in the wrong body." Questions about genital status and other bodily changes related to hormone therapy ensue. Followed by an inevitable over-sexualization, sideshow-esque curiosity, or hopeful period of normalization.
I welcome a new news, a positive, inclusive, varied account of trans people within a larger conversation of race, gender, and class.
As a trans person, I do not readily fit the description of those most often portrayed. My gender identity is androgynous. My preferred pronoun is "he," with a masculinity that is most closely related that of Shakespearian fairies -- fluid and slight. I am bookish, fay and a glam-rock fanatic.
As a reporter, I hope that new media will grow to encompass transgender and gender-variant expressions as varied as my own. Awareness of trans issues is expanding, and we deserve expansive news sources, too -- a news media that opens to a new level of earnest sensitivity and accountability for information they provide about trans/genderqueer people, if only for those teen queers looking for positive, accurate reflections of themselves in the world.
The Best and Worst Trans News Last Week
Best: The Root, "Black and Transgender: A Double Burden"
Worst: Fox News, "Male or Female? Boy Given Drugs So He Can Pick Gender"
Follow Emerson Whitney on Twitter: www.twitter.com/emwhitney
Diane Ehrensaft, Ph.D.: Talking About Children's Gender: Words Matter
http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book226777/toc
Willow
But here's the thing. I'm on the front lines in some respects. Every person who comes into my classroom has now met and knows they are meeting a transwoman. I educate every person, student or faculty. And I answer ALL of their questions, no matter how invasive, because I want them to know the truth of us. I know there are some who feel I shouldn't be teaching for whatever reason they have that has nothing to do with my abilities as a professional. And, yet, I'm still there. I still teach and I still counsel my students and I still put on shows. I still do my job.
I agree that there needs to be a new paradigm when addressing our stories, our news and our lives. Less concern with genitalia and more with who we are. That begins with sites like this one treating TG stories with less sensationalism and more humanism. But the fact is, that this site has a TG section is a big step forward.
That said, I am very open and casual about being transgender whenever I think it might be pertinent to a conversation. I'm not "in your face" about it, but I also recognize that I am very likely the only transgender person that most people will ever get a chance to talk to, and therefore I take advantage to present transgender people in a positive light whenever I can.
I know it will take many more years before people generally see positive role models of transgender people on a regular basis, on tv and in the movies, but until then, I hope that I can be that positive role model for those around me -- especially young people who are still trying to discover why they don't fit into the stereotypes we force upon them.
I strongly feel that trans people should never give a member of the media a “before” picture, never choose to participate in reporting about themselves that focuses on their transition experience alone, and insist that all reporting recognize the fact that there are large numbers of us all across the nation and the world, deserving respect as a legitimate minority group.
I'd argue that The Huffington Post could help if they made more of an effort to include transgender voices on the site. It's great that HuffPo now has a "Transgender" page, but how much is that worth when most of the content is written by non-trans writers, when much of the page is filled with old content or even articles which have little or nothing to do with transgender people?
In addition, since a significant percentage of transgender people are not gay, having the transgender page included as a subsection of "Gay Voices" is problematic at best, grossly inaccurate and catering to untrue stereotypes at worst. Couldn't they have called it "LGBT Voices" instead?
I'm tired of seeing gays and lesbians held up as spokespeople for transgender people. It's unfair, inaccurate, and just plain wrong, just as it would be to have a white person presented as a spokesperson for African-Americans. In order to take on this problem effectively, it's time for media like HuffPo and the major networks to start doing their homework on us and our issues.
No, what we have here is a white, male Homosexual telling the rest of us that we just have to accept the term that is normally used to exclusively refer to people like him as in this case an inclusive term that includes us.
Sounds to me very much like the argument made for continuing to use "Man" as a term for the human race and "He" as the generic pronoun for unknown persons. "You feminists are just too sensitive!"
Well, I guess we Trans folk are just too sensitive?
In short, this is a perfect example of the problem with mainstream media and the way it deals with LGBT-relevant content, not at all the solution.
LGBT is "too clinical"? Really? It's the universally understood inclusive term for our community. Noah claims he wants to foster inclusion and diversity, but defining all of us with "gay", a word universally understood as chiefly referring to homosexual men (which most of us are not), is somehow a viable way of doing that? Seriously?
Noah can try to rationalize it all he wants, but rationalized erasure and subordination of lesbian, transgender, and bisexual identity is still erasure and subordination nonetheless. It's unfair, it's inaccurate, it validates false stereotypes, and it's just plain wrong.
If you folks don't understand that and why this kind of unjust homogenization of LGBT identity is wrong and something to be avoided then you are indeed part of the problem.