When Should Newspapers Mention A Person Is Transgender?
When the Santa Fe New Mexican reported the arrest of 60-year-old Randey Michelle “Mikeh” Gordon for impersonating a police officer and illegally pulling over another vehicle, they opted for the headline “Transsexual faces charges of police impersonation.” Replace the word transexual with “African-American”, “lesbian”, “Iraqi”, or “pole dancer” and you’ll understand why this is a problem.
Basically, Gordon’s transgender identity had nothing to do with the story. (Her defense — that she’s had a lifelong desire to be a cop — does.) In addition, the article included the following ill-considered statements about Gordon (emphasis added):
[Gordon] a former male high-school art teacher in Westchester County, N.Y…. caused a stir in 2000 when she took the school year off with pay to have a sex-change operation…
Last summer… police heard that a “person in women’s clothes who was very obviously a male” was parking a police-like vehicle along I-25…
[the State police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia] said “the suspect likes to be called she“
To the newspaper’s credit, at least they used the correct female pronoun for Gordon. But it’s clear they focused on Gordon’s transgender identity to dramatize an otherwise mundane story. And we should be outraged, right? Well, it depends on how you look at it.
The civil and women’s rights movement have taught us that the initial appearance of “others” in mainstream media always comes with severe representational issues. As trans identity continues its rocky entry into the mainstream, some media will treat it as a novelty, especially when it comes to trans criminals, even if their gender identity is immaterial to the crime story.
That’s not to say that we should accept it, or that “any press is good press” when it comes acquainting audiences with transgender people, but we should expect it to come up when it occurs. At the same time, we should also encourage local newspapers like the Santa Fe New Mexican to present members of the trans community for what they also are: community builders and individuals facing unique social challenges, and not just law breaking crazies who want to play dress up for a weekend.
Update: As some of you have mentioned, the story referenced is from November 2009, making it “old news.” Still worth covering, but yeah, it’s dated.
Do you realize this story is seven months old?
Are you trying to tell me that newspapers sometimes use attention-grabbing headlines to get readers? Shocking. I’m sure Queerty has never done such a thing.
@Mike: @Mike:
Don’t be so hard. There were some big words in the article that took time for Queerty to learn.
@Xerxes: Get bent. OK THX BAI!
This is a serious issue. Mentioning an individual’s sexual, gender, ethic or racial identity is appropriate only when it’s related to a significant aspect of the reported story — for example a hate crime.
Journalistic ethics and the style-books of old & new media are clear on this issue. The Santa Fe New Mexican is stooping to the level of the tabloids if their own “standards” don’t respect those guidelines.
Example: “Transgender Woman Refused Entry to ‘Wymyn-Only’ Music Fest” would be relevant.
“Gay Man Denied Access to Visit Partner in Hospital” would pass muster.
“Dominican Gay Man Arrested for Shoplifting Wonderbras from Local Mall” would and should be re-worded.
There ya have it!
Her name is actually spelled Mekah Gordon.
@gina: “Thank you for your valuable contribution. Your ability to articulate substantiative issues in these trying times is very important to all of us and we look forward to hearing your viewpoint again in 2014. Best wishes.”
@jeffree: You really think that news stories should be adjective free and not tell you anything about the people involved? That’s going to be a pretty boring. “Subject Verb Object: More at 11!”