Joelle Farrell and John Sullivan are the bylined writers of a Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly.com) piece entitled School challenge: Transgender student is age 9. Incredibly, the article gave out information that could help identify the specific daytime whereabouts and nighttime neighborhood of a nine year old transgender youth.

In addition to functionally outing a nine year old, the Philadelphia Inquirer also ignored reputable journalistic standards for how to refer to transgender people. They showed disrespect for the article’s transgender youth by to referring to her with male pronouns in a manner inconsistent with the Associated Press Stylebook’s guidelines on how to refer to transgender people:

Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

So, while writing about how the Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to the outing of a nine year old, remember that they called her a “him” in the process of outing her.

The decision to disrespect the child by referring to her by male pronouns was made by Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com Education Editor Rose Ciotta. Along with the publisher, Editor Ciotta is also responsible for deciding to publish the name of the elementary school the nine year old attended. The paper indicated to me that they obtained the name of the school from a much less well read Haverford Township blog — it strikes me as incredulous that the editor and newspaper believe that finding the name of the child’s school in a blog gave them license to publish this information that could endanger the youth.

Although neither the elementary school (which sent out a flier to parents indicating there was a transgender nine year old attending the elementary school), the Haverford Township blog, or Philadelphia Inquirer directly released the name of this transgender child to the general public, we do see a chain of events which led to a print media outlet publishing the name of the elementary school that the transgender youth attends. Think of it this way — when a print media outlet writes about a sexual assault victim, as a rule they don’t tell you where the sexual assault victim was employed, or in what neighborhood sexual assault victim lived. Yet within the pages of their hard copy and electronic newspapers, the Philadelphia Inquirer identified the elementary school the transgender youth attended to the general public. The publication told the public where this nine year old spends each school day, and the neighborhood where this nine year old lives.

One can only guess the Philadelphia Inquirer has never though about how that violence related to a youth’s gender variance is a real possiblility, or that conservative Christian adults may encourage mockery of (or even violence towards) a transgender child specifically because a child is transgender.

Refering to the child as “him,” publishing her daytime location and identifying where she and her family can face possible verbal and physical harassment — If I were the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, I’d be very embarassed and ashamed that my publications published this article.

[What to do after the fold.]

Stories on transgender youth seem to be reaching the media more frequently these days; I’m not the only one who thinks the lack of concern for the privacy and safety of transgender youth is a problem. I spoke to Cindi Creager of GLAAD earlier this evening, I learned that GLAAD is very seriously considering adding a section on reporting on transgender youth for their 2008 update to the GLAAD Media Reference Guide. I suggested that they might want to discuss the issue of underage transgender youth story guidelines with the Associated Press at their next meeting too — Ms. Creager told me that was being thought about as an agenda item for their next meeting with the AP as well. I really believe guidelines for reporting on transgender youth have of late become incredibly necessary. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s piece a reason why guidelines are incredibly necessary.

Please also consider letting the Haverford Township blog and the Philadelphia Inquirer know that they should treat information that could be used to out an LGBT youth with much more sensitivity and seriousness than they did in this case. And, should you contact these organizations, please don’t harass them with profanity or threaten them with violence — using profanity or the threat of violence to complain about possible harassment of, or violence towards transgender youth would make us as much the bullies as we don’t want any others to be.

- Philadelphia Inquirer Write to Us: Letters and Op-Eds
- Harvard Blog Contact Information

~~
Kim Pearson of TYFA provided background information for this diary.

~~~~~
Related:
* Outing #2: When You Endanger A Child For The Sensationalism Of It
* Literally Demonizing Transyouth
* Defense attorney of Lawrence King’s murderer: it’s the victim’s fault
* Parents confront officials about Lawrence King shooting
* Tired
* We Wouldn’t Want To Actually Tolerate Transgender People, Would We?

~~Article 2 of 2 on transgender outing today~~

I got a call tonight from Shannon Garcia of TransYouth Family Advocates (TYFA) last night. She described a 9News report from Douglas County, Colorado, saying there is enough information being put out in this article and accompanying video to out the transgender child for ridicule and violence.

The news station apparently wasn’t interested in talking to anyone with expertise on transgender children to get the child’s perspective out in their on air broadcast. The accompanying print article refers comments from Kim Pearson, the TYFA Executive Director, but these weren’t included in their on air comments.

The Rocky Mountain News is doing an article on this story soon, but they at least are getting a perspective other than the worried parent in the same classroom.

The article’s headline read Boy wants to return to school as a girl. Some gems from the text:

- “I see this as being a very difficult situation to explain to my daughter to explain why someone would not want to be the gender they were born with,” said Dave M.

His daughter will be in the same class as the student.

- “I do think that there’s going to be an acknowledgement that ‘Why are you in a dress this year when you were in pants last year?’” said Dave M.

- That thought is not comforting to Dave M., who believes his daughter is not ready to think about the issue of being transgender.

“I don’t think a 3rd grader does have the rationale to decide this life-altering choice,” said Dave M.

- [Dave M.] is also unhappy with the way the school is handling this. The district has been preparing for the child’s return to this school for months. Dave M. thinks other parents should have been made aware of this sooner.

“I just find it ironic that they can dictate the dress style of children to make sure they don’t wear inappropriate clothing, but they have no controls in place for someone wearing transgender clothing,” said Dave M.

Yes, let’s force everyone to conform.

For an idea of how irresponsible the press is in releasing this to public in this sensationalized way, let’s remember that the child we are talking about is in third grade. This be emotionally disastrous for this child due to the media attention. Has anyone looked at LGBT youth suicide rates lately?

And, it could have been dangerous with for this transgender third grader even without the media coverage. Let’s not forget about what the Christian Civic League encouraged in Maine. In their online publishing arm — The Record — they commended a grandfather for encouraging his grandchild to protest an m2f transgender classmate. From that commendation:

Mr. Melanson told his grandson to use the girls’ bathroom whenever he saw the other ten-year-old boy using it. Melanson reasons that the same anti-discrimination laws that are likely to be used to justify one boy’s use of the girls’ bathroom may also be used to justify his grandson’s use of the same bathroom.

His reasoning is sound. Nevertheless, he has been told by school administrators, and the local police, that his grandson cannot use the girls’ bathroom. The administration persists is allowing only one boy to use the girls’ bathroom at the Asa Adams Elementary School.

And who can forget that NARTH’s Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger advocated, on NARTH’s website, for the ridiculing of gender variant children:

In a blog on NARTH’s website, Berger expressed disgust with a Northern California school that accommodated a cross-dressing kindergartner and other children with “gender-variant” behaviors. Berger said that instead of teaching tolerance, schools should “let the other children ridicule” boys and girls who don’t conform.

“It is a mistake for various interfering, ignorant and biased busybodies to try to ‘counsel’ the other children into accepting the abnormal,” Berger wrote. “It is very healthy to be able to draw the line between what is healthy and what is sick.”

So, with our third grader, we see religious right organizations have advocated protesting transgender elementary school kids, as well as ridiculing them. Well, I feel Christ’s love there, don’t you?

For those of us with LGBT families, do any of us think that outing an LGBT elementary school child in the media is responsible? Would you have wanted to be outed by the television news, even if they didn’t mention your name?

My best wishes are for the continued health and well being of this child, especially after this kind of press coverage.

~~~~~~
Note: I talked to Kim Pearson of TYFA on the phone Thrusday night, and she told me that GLAAD is going to take on News9 for their article and news story. That’s good news to my ears, that’s for sure.

GLAAD, in a press release from August 13th, condemned…

…a grotesque, violent new product marketed by actor Joseph R. Gannascoli and Rockwell Billiards. Gannascoli, who played the gay character Vito Spatafore on the hit HBO drama, The Sopranos has authorized his name to be used on a pool stick branded with the phrase “A Cue to Die For.” The new product plays on the fact that Vito was beaten to death on The Sopranos with pool cues and then sodomized with one.

It’s as if Rockwell Billiards is clueless that hate crime violence happens in the real world.

~~~~~
H/t: PageOneQ / Television Week

~~~~~
Further reading: Apologetic “Sopranos” co-star Gannascoli may pull “to die for” pool cues

I sent this to the South Florida Sun-Journal, GLAAD, and the Trans Media Watch.
~~A~~

Dear Editors,

The history of our great country includes some awful episodes. For example:

In 1926, the American Association of Physical Anthropology and the National Research Council organized a Committee on the Negro, which focused on the anatomy of blacks and reflected the racism of the time. Among those appointed to the Committee on the Negro were Hrdlicka, Earnest Hooton and eugenist Charles Davenport. In 1927 the committee endorsed a comparison of African babies with young apes. Ten years later the group published findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology to “prove that the negro race is phylogenetically a closer approach to primitive man than the white race.”[1]

I can’t imagine the South Florida Sun-Journal today publishing commentaries on eugenics that that would be considered offensive, and demeaning the intelligence or morals of a race or class of people (such as women or disabled people). In the same vein, I also wouldn’t expect to read a commentary in the Sun-Journal that claimed African-Americans, women, and disabled were as a group were delusional or untruthful about their experiences with racism, sexism, or their medical conditions. Nor could I imagine a situation involving race, gender, or disability where the Sun-Journal would suspend their styleguide (or the Associated Press styleguide) to allow the slurring of an entire race or class of people.

Yet, the Sun-Journal published an article by Amanda Hollmann that slurs transgender people as a group, and Susan Stanton as an individual. The article by Hollmann ignored what the healthcare professionals at The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association wrote in their Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders[2], which articulates the “international organization’s professional consensus about the psychiatric, psychological, medical, and surgical management of gender identity disorders.” (There is no recognized standard of care for “curing” transsexuals.)

And, Hollmann’s article was written using male pronouns, in contention with the Associated Press Stylebook, 2006, which states:

transgender. Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

And, Hollmann’s article declared that transsexuals, such as Stanton, are delusional liars.

I believe that the Sun-Journal’s publishing of Hollmann’s article says as much or more about the journalistic standards of the Sun Journal as it does about Hollmann’s specious arguments.

—————
[1] Eugenics and Physical Anthropology; Science: 1890s-1930s. (2007)
Race, American Anthropological Association, Retrieved June 18, 2007
http://www.understandingrace.org/history/science/eugenics_physical.html

[2] Walter Meyer III M.D. et al, (February, 2001) The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association’s Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders. Sixth Version. Retrieved June 18, 2007 from The World Professional Association For Transgender Health, Inc.
http://www.wpath.org/Documents2/socv6.pdf

With all of the changes this year in how various forms of media — including the entertainment media – with how transgender people and issues are covered, I’m going to start documenting how transgender is becoming the new gay.  I mean that in the sense that the transgender civil rights movement is following a similar path to the one the gay civil rights movement has taken over the past 40-years.

Today’s example story is in how transfolk keep coming out younger and more publicly (just like coming out gay age has now dipped to the early to mid-teens from the middle-age coming out age averages of just post-Stonewall) and are fighting for the right to be themselves in hostile environments.

From the Dallas Morning News’s Transgender teen free to be herself:

FORT WORTH – When Rochelle Evans chooses what she’s going to wear to Eastern Hills High School each day, her choices aren’t solely fashion statements. To Rochelle, her flats, makeup and women’s jeans represent a hard-fought right to express herself.

And a subtle declaration about transgender teens everywhere.

The 15-year-old transgender sophomore, who started high school as Rodney Evans, recently fought a public battle against school administrators over wearing women’s clothes and her reaction when confronted by school officials. As part of the deal, Rochelle is addressed as a female and gets to use the nurse’s bathroom to avoid any awkward scenes in the boys’ or girls’ restroom.

“I just felt more comfortable being a girl,” she said. “I’m not asking for any special treatment.”

And in a parallel course of events, there is Religious Right backlash.  The National Association For Research And Therapy Of Homosexuality (NARTH) released the story entitled Gender Confused Teenage Boy Wins Right To Wear Girl’s Clothing To School (subtitled: The mainstream media is apparently conspiring with transgender confused persons by labelling [sic] them ‘girls’ when they’re genetically boys):

Rodney Evans is a 15-year-old boy who attends Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth, Texas. He has recently won the right to wear girl’s clothing to school and to require others to call him “Rochelle” instead of Rodney…

…The reporter [of the , Debra Dennis, referred to this boy as “she” throughout the article, even though he is genetically a male and has not undergone any sort of hormone or surgical procedure yet.

His attorney is Phyllis Randolph Frye who has been involved in transgender political activities for years. Frye underwent male-to-female sex surgery years ago and is a well-known activist among gay and transgender groups.

NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., notes: “No matter how much this boy wants to be a girl–and dresses in a more ‘girly” style than do biological females–he cannot possibly be one, and for the media to conspire with his fantasy is absurd. All his DNA reflects the fact that he is male, and nothing can change that. It’s ironic, though, that the same mainstream media that brackets the term ‘ex-gay’ in scare quotes is willing to call a boy who wears high heels a ’she.’”

Rochelle is going to have to be strong to be transgender in a hostile school and cultural religious right context.  It looks like Rochelle is up to it, and is going to be powerful example for other transyouth coming out in their schools.

———
Note: Dr. Nicolosi apparently doesn’t know what the Associated Book Stylebook says about transgender people and terms:

transgender : Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

What the heck is it with the mainstream media being so concerned about what transsexuals wear in public?  This is from the first paragraph of Phil Davis’s Associated Press account of Susan Stanton not being hired as the Sarasota City Manager:

Steve Stanton was fired as city manager in Largo two months ago after announcing his plans to become Susan Stanton. On Wednesday, Stanton, wearing a white skirt, pumps and makeup, applied for the top job in this cosmopolitan tourist town, and was turned down.

My male-to-female transsexual peers and I are more than just phr3qs wearing appropriate skirts, pumps, and make-up.

Hey Phil, Ms. Stanton was a city manager for 14-years — why would you think defining any other woman in the sexist terms of her skirt as good journalism? Would you think it appropriate journalism to describe exactly how a natal female applicants were dressed for a city job interview without describing in equal detail how the natal male applicants were dressed?

With all respects to Geico, Phil “sweetie,” are you a caveman?

 I’m e-mailing my GLAAD rep today or tomorrow — Hope it does some good.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

I received this is response to my recent letter to Amanda Perez:

Ms. Sandeen,

Thank you taking the time to express your concerns. I understand that gender identification is a sensitive issue and want you to know I did not mean to offend anyone. Before the piece aired, I did ask Johnny how he would like to be identified. Johnny told me it didn’t matter whether I used ‘he’ or ’she.’ Again, I do understand this is a sensitive issue and appreciate your feedback.

Thank you for visiting our website.

Sincerely,
Amanda Perez

I’d say this was a very positive, agreeable response.

I’m sending this letter off to ABC30.com, out of Fresno California. It’s a wonderful story about a transgirl winning a Prom Queen title, yet the piece is somewhat diminished by the inappropriate use of male pronouns throughout the article and accompanying video.
~~A~~

Re: A History Making Moment At A Valley Prom

Dear Amanda Perez and News Director/Editor,

I’ve today read online the article “A History Making Moment At A Valley Prom” by Amanda Perez, and noted ABC30’s use of male pronouns to describe Crystal Vera.

I please ask that your news organization review your stylebook. I respectfully request your station/online publishing group follow the Associated Press Stylebook, 2006 edition, where on page 249 it states under the transgender entry:

Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

I listened to the accompanying video clip, and heard that Chrystal expressed her desire to that she be referred to as a female.

I would request ABC30 update it’s online article to reflect Chrystal Vera’s gender, vice her sex, in accordance with the Associated Press Stylebook, 2006 edition.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely
Autumn Sandeen

——
See other letters of complaint I’ve written to news stations here.  These are the kind of letters that you, my gentle transgender readers, could also be sending to news stations too!

TS Policy Review: Good-Bye to Transgender and All That

CitizenLink (Focus On The Family): Dr. Dobson Applauds Bush’s Pledge to Veto ‘Hate-Crimes’ Bill
I consider this and the article linked to above it to be “opposition pieces.” ~~A~~

Gay Wired: GLAAD Applauds Univision Radio’s Suspension of ‘The Luis Jimenez Show’
Excerpt: Jiménez established a pattern of defamatory slurs directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people during his 13 years as the host of El Vacilón de la Mañana at WSKQ-FM Mega 97.9, the New York affiliate of Spanish Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). At SBC, Jiménez and his co-host, “Moon,” were widely known for routinely making homophobic and transphobic comments.

Amnesty International: Five Men Beat Transvestite Activist in Honduras While Police Watch, Charges Amnesty International

Knoxville News Sentinel: Transgender teens come out in Canada at young ages

Woman In Progress: Nothing superficial about it; A tag-team of emails caught my attention over the weekend.
Excerpt: “I think you are incredibly brave and a most generous person to share your transition with the whole world! I’ve been reading your blog and it has been making me think about ‘what characterizes a woman.’ This may not be the time in your life to think about this question, but I want to throw it out to you and maybe in five years you’ll want to discuss it. . .”

San Francisco Chronicle: The Leg Warmers Were A Dead Giveaway
U. of Washington’s Class of ‘57 time capsule, sealed 50 years ago, is found to contain ’80s porn.

Simon Aronoff had an article posted in the Washington Blade today entitled Demagogues of Defamation. In the article, Simon says:

Words have power. Words in the media have more. That’s why Michael Savage’s recent disgusting on-air tirade slandering Ruby Ordenana, a 24-year-old transgender woman who was found murdered on March 16, was so dangerous. I know you’ve read this before: Hate speech creates an environment where hate crimes are acceptable. But is anybody listening when those words slander transgender people?

SAVAGE’S COMMENTS MAKE the world an even more dangerous place for me and my trans brothers and sisters. Ruby’s body was found nude, lacerated and strangled, and the attention-seeking Savage called her a “freak” and a “psychopath.”

What is worse, Michael Savage (who no one expects to deliver actual news) is not the only trans-bashing voice in the media. Try reading through some transcripts from CNN’s Glenn Beck or MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson. Enabled by networks, producers and advertisers in this dangerous defamation, here’s Carlson in his own words:

“Just because you’re castrated and have a fake set of boobs does not make you a woman. It makes you a castrated man with a fake set of boobs. If a person voluntarily undergoes a castration. . .that is an act of a crazy person. . . .That’s like setting your hair on fire or blinding yourself . . .and I don’t want a person that unstable teaching my kids.”

And from CNN’s talking head Glenn Beck reporting on a trans teen who was turned away from her prom for wearing a dress:

“Don’t we as a society, don’t we have the right to say, what the hell is wrong with you? … Go home and change, freak boy.”

In the article he announced the formation of a website: Trans Media Watch. As someone who follows how media covers transpeople, this is a blog I’m going to watch . I know I hope that this idea of tracking how media covers transgender people nets positive attention and results.

—————
Related:

Michael Savage And Silent GLAAD

Boycott Hate

I Do Hear Crickets, But Not From GLAAD

I’m tired of racism, sexism, and anti-gay, anti-disabled, anti-transgender, and anti-Christian material being put out on the public airwaves. Where are the advertisers/businesses who demand that acceptance of diversity on the airwaves occurs in the same way they demand support for diversity in their workplaces?

From 355Gay.com:

Radio Duo Suspended After Slurs

(New York City) A New York radio station that ignored criticism after two of his morning show stars called a musician a “fag” on air has suspended the shock jocks following a prank phone call to a local Chinese restaurant that was filled with ethnic slurs.

The call was made by “JV” and “Elvis” on WFNY the day after WFAN’s Don Imus made his comments about the Rutgers women’s basketball team and was replayed a week after Imus was fired.

Both stations are owned by CBS Radio.

In the mock call, a woman employee at the Chinese restaurant was told by the caller that he would like to “come to your restaurant” to see her naked, especially the body part he referred to as “hot, Asian, spicy.”

He then attempts to order “flied lice,” and uses a series of racial slurs and four lettered words.

The program was denounced by an Asian American rights group.

Ironically, “VJ”, whose real name is Jeff Vandergrift, and “Elivs”, Dan Lay, were suspended the day that a spokesperson from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was to have gone on the show for an apology for homophobic remarks that the station laughed off earlier this month.

–
H/t Pam’s House Blend

Well, Yahoo got it wrong, refereing to a transman as a “she.”

What’s so gauling about Yahoo refereing to a transman as a she is that the headline was linked to a Associated Press story that followed doesn’t even apparently follow the Associated Press Stylebook (2006, Pg. 249) (see comment), which states:

transgender: Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Yahoo, for the record, the headline should have read Will He Reign As Prom King? — but I guess insensitivity makes for better headlines.

By the way, the transstudent didn’t win the Prom King title. But that said, congratulations to Cinthia Covarrubias for his Fresno High School (and California School System) victory for gender expression on high school campuses.

Ex-Gay Watch: What is a Christian?

Focus On The Family News: Author Dispels Myth that Homosexuality is Compatible with Scripture (”companion,” opposition piece to the one above)

Big Queer Blog: ‘Transgender’ vs. ‘transgendered’ — the great nomenclature debate engaged

Oroville Mercury-Register [CA, USA]: Transgender softball player a conundrum for recreation district

Elisa Camahort’s Personal Weblog: I admit, I’m a little behind on my shock jock rantings, but did you hear this?
It’s all about educating the folk, baby!
Focus On The Family News: Ex-Gays, African-Americans Unite Against ‘Thought Crimes’ Bill (opposition piece)

BlogHer: Fertile Women Want Manly Men

San Francisco Chronicle: Just Him, His Date And The Guy In The Window
A second-story peeping Tom leaves his ladder behind in Baraboo, Wis.

An episode of Grey’s Anatomy won the GLAAD media award for best television episode.  Incredibly, the episode that won didn’t feature a gay or lesbian character, but instead featured a trans character who had to decide whether to continue hormones or die of breast cancer.

One may remember that a star on Grey’s Anatomy, Isaiah Washington, used the “other f-word” on the set of the show to describe a gay castmate.

What is the message of this particular award? — I find the message troublingly enigmatic. On one hand GLAAD honors a television show with a castmember who used a anti-gay pejorative, on the other hand GLAAD awards a episode featuring a transgender character when GLAAD can’t seem to muster even a press release against the “psychopath” and “freak” comments Micheal Savage made regarding a murdered transwoman to his 8 million listeners.

I can’t figure out the message GLAAD is trying to send me, the transgender community, the broader LGBT community, and the general public with their best television episode award.  If anyone has any ideas on what the message I, a transwoman and LGBT community member, should be taking away from this best episode award — when coupled with the lack of GLAAD press comment on the Michael Savage incident — please let me know.  Currently, I’m clueless.

*****UPDATE*****
Per E! Entertainment online (emphasis added):

You gotta give it to the LGBT community-they know from irony. . .

Proving the media watchdog can not only master irony but layer it, the episode of the ABC hit receiving the praise, “Where the Boys Are,” was the very one whose tense backstage relations resulted in Isaiah Washington referring to then closeted costar T.R. Knight as a “faggot,” a term Washington repeated in front of a throng of reporters and eventually sought rehab for uttering.

Now I’m even more confused than ever.

Marti Abernathy, over at the Transadvocate Blog, took on a subject that’s near and dear to me. That is, the subject of how transgender people are portrayed in the media, and how LGBT organizations respond when negative portrayals of transgender people hit the media — especially when anti-transgender pejoratives and slurs are used.

GLAAD disappointed her with their recent lack of response to the recent verbal bleatings of Michael Savage on the death of a transwoman in San Francisco. Considering it’s reported that Michael Savage has approximately 8 million listeners (per Talkers Magazine), I know I would think a story like this would rate a press release from the LGBT media watchdog organization GLAAD.

Someone like me would be wrong.  Marti writes in her blog:

In my March 26th post “Just Wondering…“, I asked where the outrage was concerning Michael Savage’s recent tirade against transgender people. I checked the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) website to see if they’d issued any kind of statement concerning Savage’s assault on the transgender community. Finding none, I contacted the only transgender contact at GLAAD that I knew of, Andy Marra (She’s also on the board of NCTE, GLSEN (NYC), and NYAGRA, but you might recognize her from her recent appearance on the ABC soap, All My Children). I explained my concern and asked if GLAAD had a response to this verbal tirade. She said that she would look into it and get back to me. Late Friday afternoon I received the following statement from GLAAD’s national news director, Cindi Creager:

“This is the kind of grotesque vulgarity that got Savage fired from MSNBC and why you never see him on any credible news outlet. Savage is a fringe extremist whose behavior continues to validate the mainstream news media’s wisdom in shunning him.”

*crickets*

Is that all?! No press release, protest, call to action, or any other kind of campaign?

Lord knows if “fringe extremist” Ann Coulter used the word “faggot” to comment about presidential candidated John Edwards, GLAAD would probably have a press release out about it — oh wait, GLAAD did release a press release on that.

GLAAD’s mission statement:

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Is GLAAD’s remaining silent about a talkshow host — who reaches 8 million people — that calls a murdered transwoman a “psychopath” and a “freak” supporing “fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people … as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation?”

It’s a pretty sad day when the non-LGBT specific media watchdog organization Media Matters For America turns out to be a stronger voice against transphobia than LGBT media watchdog organization GLAAD.