Tips for telling trans stories in 2024
The latest resources about anti-trans misinformation. Plus, TJA members offered coverage tips in a webinar we helped co-host with the National Press Club Journalism Institute.
Newsletter contents
- Tools for understanding misinformation
- TJA Style Guide Spotlights
- Webinar recap: Tips for Telling Trans Stories in 2024
- ICYMI: Meet the First TJA Fellows
- What We're Reading
Tools for understanding misinformation
- Report Addresses Key Issues in Legal Battles over Gender-Affirming Health Care from Yale Law School [PDF report]
- LGBTQ+ Health Care Buzzwords from Southern Poverty Law Center
- Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience from Southern Poverty Law Center
- East Valley teen is the first Washington transgender athlete to win a state high school track championship. But controversy followed from The Spokesman-Review
- New Study Shows Stopping Medical Transition is Not the Same as Detransition from Assigned Media
- Opinion: More In-Depth Reporting on LGBTQ+ Issues is Critical to Curbing Misinformation and Harmful Rhetoric from Cincinnati CityBeat
TJA Style Guide spotlights
Tips for telling trans stories in 2024
TJA members offered key coverage tips in a webinar we helped co-host with the National Press Club Journalism Institute.
Here are a few of the suggestions from TJA members:
- If you are covering legislation, find out what instigated the legislation and who the lawmaker worked with to draft the bill. Who funded it? Include the voices of people who have been directly impacted by that legislative effort. Ask yourself: What question hasn’t been asked? What story is the media is missing on the topic?
- To find voices for your stories, look to social media groups and organizations that support trans and LGBTQ+ individuals. If you are looking to interview people under the age of 18, many news organizations will require you to get parental consent. Look for parents' groups that support trans and LGBTQ+ kids.
- When you are sourcing trans and LGBTQ+ stories, explain your reporting process to help build trust. Give sources the room to not answer questions they aren’t comfortable with. Allow them to bring a parent, lawyer, or guardian to the interview if it makes them comfortable. Let them know the risks of facing harassment for talking with you. (Teen Vogue and ESPN have, depending on the situation, given sources a pseudonym or offered anonymity if the source’s safety might be at risk.)
Read more tips and watch the full webinar.
ICYMI: Meet the first TJA Fellows
Our very own TJA fellows have just returned from the IRE conference in Anaheim, CA, where they received training in investigative journalism, data reporting, and trans-specific coverage. Meet the fellows below! And look out for an IRE recap newsletter to hear more about the TJA's events there.
Meet the TJA x IRE Fellows
We’re excited to announce the TJA x IRE Fellows who will be attending the upcoming Investigative Reporters and Editors conference this month! Thanks to support from TransLash Media and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, we’re sending 11 reporters and editors to Anaheim for valuable training in investigative
TJA Editor
Stay in touch
👀 Want to read more? View past newsletters
✉️ Want to partner with us? Get in touch
💼 Hiring? Post your job on our jobs board or email our listserv
📣 Want to spotlight your news org's job, event, or awards? Check our rates
🏳️⚧️ Want to support our work? Make a donation
Journalism industry resources
Trauma Aware Journalism
0
What we're reading
White House says it opposes gender-affirming surgery for minors
The administration’s message expands on a response to The New York Times and Fox News. It also stands at odds with Biden’s prior broad support for gender-affirming care.
Orion Rummler
7 best practices for covering LGBTQ+ communities through data
Data about LGBTQ+ people has gotten more plentiful as census collections in the U.S. and internationally have added surveys and questions seeking to understand those communities.
Kae Petrin and Jasmine Mithani
Supreme Court to decide whether it’s unconstitutional to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth
A case out of Tennessee could have nationwide implications for transgender minors and their access to health care.
Orion Rummler
Transphobic Dress Code Prompted Turmoil in Agriculture Department, Emails Show
The Texas agency’s policy may be ripe for a lawsuit.
Kit O’Connell
Why I’m leaving congressional journalism.
My experience as (probably) the only out trans reporter in Congress.
jael holzman
Young and trans in Canada | Xtra Magazine
Meet the young people and their families impacted by the surge in anti-trans policies across Canada
Ziya Jones
Florida won’t light bridges in rainbow colors. So Jacksonville’s LGBTQ community did.
After the state said its bridges will be lit red, white and blue all summer, LGBTQ supporters used rainbow-colored flashlights on Main Street bridge.
, The Florida Times-Union
Former campaign manager for North Carolina’s extremist superintendent candidate used right-wing media to attack LGBTQ inclusion in education
Update (6/6/24): Following publication, Media Matters received information that Rachmuth was recently replaced in her role as Morrow’s campaign manager, though she has continued to promote fundraisers and events for the campaign. Language in this article has been updated to reflect the change. Education First Alliance President Sloan Rachmuth put her conservative group in North Carolina on hold to serve as a campaign manager for extremist Michele Morrow’s campaign for the state’s superintendent of public instruction. In years of right-wing media appearances, Rachmuth has espoused inflammatory rhetoric and advocated for policies that exclude LGBTQ people in the classroom and public life. Media Matters previously reported that Morrow is a right-wing commentator who subscribes to the QAnon conspiracy theory and has connections to another extremist group.
Being Asian and transmasculine was ‘a revolutionary act.’ Now he’s a model for what’s possible.
At 61, Willy Chang Wilkinson has always tried to take care of his community — from fighting HIV prevention to helping the next generation of AAPI transgender men.
Orion Rummler
Mom of transgender girl athlete says Florida’s investigation has destroyed her daughter’s life
A Florida public school employee who faces firing because she allowed her transgender daughter to play girls high school volleyball is assailing those who outed her child.
TERRY SPENCERTurning Debate Anxiety Into Action w. Tre’vell Anderson | Crooked Media
Track Star CeCé Telfer Says She’s Trying to “Heal” From the Pain of Trans Sports Bans
Telfer opens up about her upcoming memoir ‘Make It Count’ and her struggle to keep competing after the World Athletics ban.
Gregory Dickens was sentenced to death for murder. Was it actually because he was gay?
A review of a decades-old case resurfaces questions of judicial bias in Arizona, and is relevant to the state’s current judicial appointees.
Adam Rhodes (they/them)
Trans sprinter Sadie Schreiner gets NCAA track bronze - Outsports
Sadie Schreiner, first trans NCAA All-American in track since 2019, enjoys the past but ponders an uncertain future
Karleigh Webb
Anti-LGBTQ Censorship Is Endangering Trans People Behind Bars
“Trans Bodies, Trans Selves,” a basic trans health resource, is explicitly banned from prisons in eight states.
Meghan Krausch
This newsletter was written by Kai Proschan, compiled and edited by Kae Petrin, and copyedited by Noia Karr.
