By TJA in events —

Misinfo watch, scholarships for TJA's Reynolds Journalism Institute workshop, and new supporters

Learn more about scholarship opportunities to attend a TJA workshop, upcoming panels, the NLGJA x TJA Book Club's first two books, and a discount code for posting on our jobs board.

A banner for an event. Event info is included in plain text below.

Register now for Beyond the “Culture War”: How to Cover Trans Issues Well in an Election Year.

Seventy-five anti-LGBTQ bills passed into law in 2023. This year, state legislatures and local policymakers have already begun proposing more restrictions on trans people. Questions about these regulations, their enforcement, and their impact on society are already central topics in the 2024 elections.

This three-hour interactive workshop will help you understand how to tell accurate, high-impact stories relevant to your audiences, whether they're local, regional, or national.

There will be hands-on exercises, activities, and take-home materials.

⏰ Tuesday February 27, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. PT / 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. ET
📍 Online
💰 $35 per person
✍️ Register now

Scholarship alert: Kimbap Media is proud to offer up to five (5) scholarships to student journalists or journalists whose newsrooms will not cover the cost.

Please email michelle@kimbap-media.com with your resume and a brief statement about why you are interested in this Trans Journalists Association training. Use SUBJECT LINE: TJA election training scholarship.

Deadline Friday, February 9, 2024 at 6:00 PM ET.

Newsletter Contents

Misinformation Watch

  1. How misinformation drove debates over transgender students and bathrooms in Arizona from The Arizona Republic
  2. Medical misinformation cited in Texas gender-affirming care ban case from Lonestar Live
  3. Interview: Mara Silvers on Covering a Child Welfare Story That Became Far-Right Outrage Fodder from Assigned Media (bonus: The Montana Free Press's in-depth reporting)
  4. ‘Chaos campaign’: how an Armenian enclave became the center of an anti-LGBTQ+ battle from The Guardian
  5. Debunked: Misleading NYT Anti-Trans Article By Pamela Paul Relies On Pseudoscience from Erin In The Morning (plus, more from Assigned Media)
  6. Evidence Undermines 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria' Claims from Scientific American
  7. Right-wing media wield detransitioners to bolster anti-trans campaign ahead of 2024 election from Media Matters for America
Like these resources? Let us know at contact@transjournalists.org. We're considering turning this into a standalone semimonthly newsletter that highlights newsworthy misinfo coverage, media watchdog reports, time-sensitive fact-checks, and evergreen resources relevant to the news cycle.

Member Spotlights

TJA member and program volunteer Tat Bellamy-Walker is the recipient of the Ottaway Fellowship to attend Investigative Reporters & Editors' Data Journalism Bootcamp at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

What Tat hopes to do with the training

I am so excited to learn how to analyze U.S. Census data on the numbers of Black homeowners in the Central District, a once predominantly Black neighborhood in Seattle. 

You can read some of Tat's work as a communities reporter at The Seattle Times.

Congrats to TJA members nominated for awards!

Tre'vell Anderson received a NAACP Image Awards nomination in the Outstanding Instructional Literature category for their book Historically Black Phrases. You can join Tre'vell and their co-author jarrett hill discussing the book on a live tour in four major U.S. cities.

Check out the work of our members nominated for the GLAAD Media Awards:

Independent journalist Jeff Fuentes Gleghorn for Outstanding Online Journalism Article:

Book banners came for this Colorado town. They didn’t anticipate resistance.
LGBTQ+ titles topped the number of book bans in the past year, but a growing number of grassroots organizations are rewriting the story…
LGBTQ NationJeff Fuentes Gleghorn

Science journalist Timmy Broderick for Outstanding Online Journalism Article:

Evidence Undermines ‘Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria’ Claims
Fears of “social contagion,” used to support anti-transgender legislation, are not supported by science
Scientific AmericanTimmy Broderick

(Additional congrats to Timmy for receiving a fellowship from Society of Environmental Journalists and The Uproot Project to attend SEJ's annual conference.)

Jo Yurcaba at NBC News for Outstanding Online Journalism Article:

From drag bans to sports restrictions, 75 anti-LGBTQ bills have become law in 2023
Restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender youth were the most common, with 21 such laws passed this year.
NBC NewsJo Yurcaba

Queer News Daily creator Nico Lang for Outstanding Online Journalism Article:

Some Trans Kids Are Being Forced To Flee America
Many people in conservative states are having to make a difficult choice after facing harassment and anti-trans laws.
HuffPostNico Lang

Imara Jones and the team at TransLash Media for Outstanding Podcast:

TransLash Podcast
TransLash tells trans stories to save trans lives. TransLash Podcast section of the site.
TransLash

Nicole Cutrona at CBS News for Outstanding TV Journalism – Long-Form:

A Nation in Transition | CBS Reports
In the 2023 legislative season, over two-thirds of U.S. states either passed or proposed laws restricting gender-affirming care, and lawmakers are debating policies that directly affect the lives of trans youth. CBS Reports sent three correspondents to three key states of a nation in transition to examine the difficult conversations rippling across the country.
CBS NewsCBS News

Public appearances

NPR's All Things Considered interviewed TJA member Vivian McCall, reporter for The Stranger, about her coverage of recent raids on Seattle's gay bars.

❗
TJA members: If you've received a journalism award, nomination, or fellowship — or made a public appearance related to your work — email contact@transjournalists.org to let us know! We're working on a form so members can submit these directly.

TJA in the Spotlight

How politicized coverage is failing the trans community
“Everyone is willing to frame queer and trans humanity as a political issue, and it’s not.... As journalists, we have to just hold the line on some basic, basic ethical things and that’s one of them.” 

Read more in the Center for Journalism Ethics article.

Here to Help: Using the NLGJA Stylebook & TJA Style and Coverage Guide

The NLGJA Stylebook on LGBTQ+ Terminology and the Trans Journalists Association's Style and Coverage Guide are two resources newsrooms can rely on to aid their coverage of LGBTQ+ topics and stories, and are meant to supplement other prose stylebooks, including the AP Stylebook. Come listen to NLGJA and TJA stylebook editors as they offer best practices for covering the LGBTQ+ community writ large, as well as guidance for more nuanced, accurate news coverage of trans people and stories.

TJA stylebook editor and board member Graph Massara will speak. Attendees must register for NLGJA's conference. Attendance is free for NLGJA student members and $25 for non-members.

⏰ Saturday February 24, 4 p.m. – 4:50 p.m. ET
📍 Online
💰 $25 or NLGJA membership costs
✍️ Register now

More panels featuring TJA members

📆 Check out the TJA events calendar for more public and members-only events

Job Listings

Check out new postings on our jobs board from the Chicago Sun-Times, Apple News, The Pudding, The Trace, and Central Current.

Want to reach our membership with jobs? We're offering discounted postings. Paid listings are cross-posted to our 800+ member Slack, X/Twitter, and jobs listserv. More info on our site.

LAUNCH50 coupon code for tja.mcjobboard.net on a purple ticket

Announcing the NLGJA x TJA Book Club

Trans Journalists Association is partnering with NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists on a book club!

Shoutout to TJA member Salgu Wissmath for volunteering as TJA's book club coordinator.

  • On Wednesday, February 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET, we will gather to discuss "Gender Queer" by Maia Kobabe.
  • On Wednesday, March 27 at 8:30 p.m. ET, the club will meet to discuss "Diary of a Misfit" by Casey Parks.

Meetings will last between 60 and 90 minutes and will be held on Zoom. Sign-up sheets for each meeting will be available soon, and the events will be listed on our social calendar and our full events calendar. Can't attend every meeting? No worries! Join when you can.

For TJA members who want to discuss the book club on Slack, join the #tja-x-nlgja-book-club channel in the TJA+Allies Slack group.

(Already a TJA journalist member, but not a member of that Slack? Check your login dashboard on the TJA members site for a link to the form to request access.)

Journalism Opportunities

Fellowships and programs

  • U.S.-based journalists interested in building careers reporting on science, health, and the environment are invited to apply for National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships. They're designed to provide training, networking, mentoring, new sources, and story ideas. Applications close Feb. 23.
  • Applications for the International Women's Media Foundation and Georgia News Collaborative Newsroom Safety Across America initiative in Georgia are open! Backed by Craig Newmark, this critical training will prepare local reporters ahead of 2024 elections. Applications close Feb. 14.
  • If you’re an HBCU journalism student who’s interested in learning how to use data, design, and code to help tell stories, the one-week intensive workshop by Du Bois Data Lab will help. You don’t need any previous experience. Applications close Feb. 26.
  • The Uproot Environmental Justice Fellowship will offer funding to seven journalists to pursue reporting projects over the course of a year. The fellowship is open to all journalists of color who are members of The Uproot Project. Applications close Mar. 1.
  • NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists Mentorship Program is seeking both mentors and mentees. It pairs members hoping to take the next step in their career with seasoned, veteran members. The program aims to create lasting relationships. It's open to active NLGJA members. Mentee applications close Feb. 29; mentor applications are rolling.

Surveys

Thanks to our Supporters

A huge thank-you to the TJA members who have donated in the last two months! More than 20% of our membership is now contributing funds towards our work. Your generosity has fully covered both our new membership site and our main site/newsletter fees for the year.
Another huge thank-you to Aron Pilhofer for becoming an individual sponsor of the TJA's upcoming programming at the Investigative Reporters & Editors conference. We're planning a series of panels on producing high-impact investigative and accountability reporting about trans communities.

Learn more about opportunities to sponsor the TJA's work this year.

Stay in touch

👀 Want to read more? View past newsletters
✉️ Want to partner with us? Get in touch
💼 Hiring? Post your opening 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

What we're reading

Sports Illustrated publisher pulls transgender boxing story from magazine from The Washington Post

A shrinking path: Ten young journalists open up about their struggles to break into the news industry
Reporters put up with low salaries, long hours and uninspiring roles in the hope they will find a full-time job. Many may never have one.
Reuters Institute for the Study of JournalismGretel Kahn
Muted response to transgender bathroom bills reflects a broader retreat on trans rights, advocates say
GOP state lawmakers are pushing the most extreme versions of laws that restrict transgender people from using restrooms since North Carolina enacted HB 2 in 2016.
NBC NewsMatt Lavietes
Ron DeSantis’ Strategy Failed Nationally — But Many Worry About Where He’ll Turn His Focus
The last year of DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ+ agenda has offered a window into what the future might look like for queer and trans residents of the state.
HuffPostLil Kalish
Queer-owned businesses aim to be seen after controversial transgender bill becomes law
Local queer-owned businesses in Ogden are showing their support for the transgender community after Utah lawmakers passed a bill restricting public restroom access based on sex designated at birth.
FOX 13 News Utah (KSTU)By: Mythili Gubbi
How the World of Competitive Climbing Was Rocked by Transphobia
The governing body for sport climbing issued new restrictions on trans athletes with no warning. All hell broke loose.
The NationFrankie de la Cretaz
Florida’s Trans Health Care Ban Targets Teens. It’s Ensnaring Adults in Prisons, Too
Nearly two dozen transgender women in prison said their access to treatment suddenly changed following the “anti-woke” law championed by Gov. DeSantis.
The Marshall ProjectBeth Schwartzapfel
Iowa bill says medical providers could refuse to provide any services that violate their beliefs
Medical providers could refuse to perform any health service that violates the provider’s ethical, moral or religious beliefs under a bill that advanced Wednesday in the Iowa Senate.
Iowa Public RadioKatarina Sostaric
DEI attacks pose threats to medical training, care
Banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in medical schools could derail decades-long efforts to address health disparities.
USA TODAYDanielle McLean, USA TODAY
Trans people in Florida can no longer update their driver’s licenses
A new state rule may expose trans people to criminal or civil penalties if they try to update their documentation.
The 19thOrion Rummler
TransLash Guide to Sundance Film Festival 2024
Explore trans-led films and TGNC-affirming resources at this year’s Sundance events.
TransLashTransLash Media
In ‘The Dads,’ men bond over fishing and their love for their transgender kids
The Netflix documentary short film, executive produced by Dwyane Wade, follows six fathers of LGBTQ children who bond during a fishing trip in rural Oklahoma.
NBC NewsMax Gao
Running Away to Yourself
How a transgender teen from East Tennessee escaped from his family to find himself.
The Daily YonderLane Wendell Fischer

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