A new report finds that cable news channels stopped covering anti-trans violence altogether after Pride month.
According to research released by the progressive nonprofit Media Matters for America on Wednesday, TV news stations reported on anti-trans violence for a combined total of only 29 minutes in June, which is LGBTQ+ Pride month, and then failed to report on the topic in July or August. ABC and NBC each reported on the topic in a single segment in June for just one minute each, while CBS and PBS failed to cover it at all.
“In years past, coverage of [anti-trans violence] has been so low that seven minutes on other networks outside of MSNBC is considered a significant amount of coverage,” the report reads.
Eight of the 11 segments in June accounted for almost 17 minutes of coverage and focused on two Black trans lives demonstrations that took place on June 14: the Brooklyn Liberation march in New York City and the All Black Lives Matter march in Los Angeles.
Every broadcast network — with the exception of ABC — did not produce any reports on anti-trans violence in July and August. The lone segment that aired on ABC was an August 19 report on three trans women who were robbed and attacked in Los Angeles; the report was broadcast on World News Tonight with David Muir.
The research shows that networks did report on the murder of Summer Taylor, a nonbinary activist who was killed during a Black Lives Matter protest in Seattle, but Taylor — whose pronouns were they/them — was largely misgendered by news channels such as CNN and MSNBC. A Fox News report, meanwhile, only referred to them by their name and not their correct pronouns.
Media Matters concluded that the “disparity in summertime TV news coverage” of anti-trans violence shows that networks are aware of the epidemic and “have the capacity to report on it but largely chose not to outside of Pride month.”
As a result, right-wing media outlets continue to dominate coverage of trans issues and are able to spread misinformation which further causes harm towards the community.
“At a time when conservative activists are also using anti-trans messaging as a wedge issue in the 2020 presidential race on social media platforms, it is crucial that TV news networks produce intentional and respectful coverage about the trans community,” Media Matters researchers Alex Paterson and Brianna January report.
The findings are particularly troublesome given that trans and gender non-conforming people continue to face the highest number of homicides recorded by the Human Rights Campaign at this point in the year since it began tracking cases in 2013. At least 26 transgender and gender non-conforming people have been killed in the U.S. so far this year, and one more death would equal the total number of homicides in all of 2019.
Reports on the violence perpetrated against transgender people, particularly transgender women of color, often receive little coverage. According to Media Matters, broadcast News has consistently failed to cover anti-trans violence: A 2019 report from the organization revealed that TV news only covered the topic for 33 minutes.
When the media does cover these cases, victims are often misgendered and deadnamed. This is often due to police reports that misidentify trans people, which happens so frequently that HRC has created a media guide on covering trans and gender nonconforming people.
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