"Major broadcast and cable news networks are failing in their coverage of the transgender community, prioritizing sensational depictions of transgender people while ignoring important transgender stories..."
Media Matters tracked transgender coverage on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo and Univision during January and February 2015 and the results are disturbing. Instead of concentrating on substantive transgender issues, the networks preferred to concentrate on Bruce Jenner rumors, Chelsea Manning's hormone therapy and the like.
It's no wonder that we have such a poor public image and are being locked out of bathrooms throughout the USA! (By the way, it's no surprise that the big networks practically ignored the bathroom legislation issue.)
And transpeople were seldom invited to be part of the discussion to speak for themselves. "As GLAAD has noted, 'transgender people are the experts to talk about transgender people.' The absence of trans individuals makes it easier for networks to create negative, misleading, or dehumanizing depictions of transpeople with impunity.
In those rare cases that transpeople were able to speak "about their experiences and community, the impact they had on the tone and content of media coverage was nothing short of transformative."
Enough from me; read it for yourself here.
Wearing M. Missoni.
Actor Sven Schelker in the 2014 Swiss film Der Kreis (The Circle).