Transgender People Are Paying The Price For The Media’s Willful Ignorance

[xchrom]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/transgender-people-are-paying-the-price-for-the-medias-willf


People gather at a vigil for slain transgender woman Islan Nettles at Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem on Aug. 27, 2013 in New York City. Mario Tama / Getty Images

For those who care about the way transgender people are covered in the media — to say nothing of transgender people themselves who bear the brunt of the blow — it has been a difficult few weeks. “A chill ran down my spine” is how Caleb Hannan, a Grantland contributor, describes the moment he realized that the subject of his story was a transwoman. In the article, Hannan doesn’t get a “chill” later when the woman, an inventor and entrepreneur, begs him not to out her, stating “you’re about to commit a hate crime.”

After describing how the subject of his story swallowed pills, put a bag over her head and died on her kitchen floor — a suicide some have suggested came as a result of Hannan’s own reporting, though she did not leave a note so we will likely never know for sure — the writer’s next sentence is about himself: “Writing a eulogy for a person who by all accounts despised you is an odd experience.”

To review, a person was outed as transgender against her will and pushed to the breaking point and somehow not only a writer but at least one editor decided this was a story that should be published. This is no eulogy.

“The whole thing about passing is about survival,” actress Laverne Cox told me recently. “Being people able to walk down the street and not have strangers recognize you as trans is about survival. We become targets for violence.”

[shenmue]

1. :(

So sad.

[Initech]

2. Here's the link to the Grantland piece - worth reading:

http://grantland.com/features/a-true-trans-soul-rebel/