The year in reporting on LGBTQ issues began with the tragedy of Dr. V but was dotted with successes and failures.
We could fixate on the disrespect heaped on Jennifer Laude and other victims of violence this year, but there were some great pieces of journalism about gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender communities in 2014. Here are 10.
1). Fusion’s investigative story on transgender asylum-seekers and detainees who are forced into solitary confinement or into abusive, violent detention circumstances in the United States is a deep multimedia piece that is an example of moving beyond the coming-out narrative and into the actual issues faced by transgender people in this country.
2.) The biggest LGBTQ journalism mistake (mistake may not be a strong enough word. Debacle. Tragedy. ) did spawn some of the year’s most thoughtful (and enraged) commentary on journalism and vulnerable subjects. Thinkpieces that grew out of the Grantland/Dr. V tragedy:
Autostraddle’s Audrey Faye: Dr. V is Dead…
“The journalist and Dr. V” Nieman Storyboard
“Sinatra’s Cold is Contagious” by Maria Dahvana Headley
The Nation (Kye Allums, the first openly transgender Division 1 athlete in NCAA history), on being enough
Josh Levin for Slate: Digging Too Deep
3.) Private Manning’s Missing Medical Care. The New York Times’ editorial board’s support for Chelsea Manning and its decision to advocate for her and all incarcerated transgender people:
Transgender inmates are especially vulnerable to sexual assaults and special care must be taken to ensure their safety with accommodations like private showering, but without imposing an excessively isolated prison environment. Anger over Private Manning’s offense may add to safety worries. And it may be that the all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth is not the right institution for her. Civilian jails and prisons around the country are figuring out ways to meet the particular needs of transgender inmates. Surely, Mr. Hagel, who oversees the far more complicated logistics of war, can figure it out, too.
4.) At Poynter, we love when mistakes and insensitive reporting is flipped and turned into a learning moment. When Katie Couric asked transgender celebrities Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox about their genitals on national television, it was an obvious lowpoint. But when Couric took what she learned from that experience and turned it into an opportunity to discuss real issues facing the trans community, it was a demonstration of the power of the community’s voice and of journalism’s ability to right a wayward ship.
5.) “Inside the Iron Closet: What It’s Like to Be Gay in Putin’s Russia” This February GQ longread by Jeff Sharlet (and its great photos by Yuri Kozyrev) really made the Russia story three-dimensional in a way that just reading facts about the plight of LGBT Russians couldn’t.
6.) Chris Geidner’s solid reporting and thorough analysis for BuzzFeed are essential to understanding the latest state and federal court decisions and what they mean for same-sex couples.
7.) At some point, this may seem passé, but this charming here’s-your-new-anchor story introduces viewers to the man who many of them will spend time with most evenings, and also introduces them to his partner, treating him the same way they’d likely treat an opposite-sex spouse of a new anchor. It’s from WFSB 3 in Hartford, Connecticut.
8. and 9.) In 2013 when I interviewed GLAAD’s Nick Adams, he said that the media needed to do a better job of showing transgender people just living their lives and being successful and happy. Showing that transgender people are regular spouses, parents, neighbors, leaders, co-workers, and friends is essential to combating the perception that they’re so different from people who aren’t transgender, he said. Katy Bergen’s Trans Sarasota project and TIME Magazine’s “Transgender Tipping Point” issue (featuring Laverne Cox on the cover) tell the stories of transgender people living a range of experiences.
10.) October is the hot month for causes, with breast cancer awareness and domestic violence awareness pinking and purpling the media landscape, and especially so this year, as the Ray Rice domestic abuse story occurred in October. But the Advocate.com took all 31 days of October to cover an issue that is still huge in the gay community, even though it doesn’t receive as much media attention as it once did. PrEP, the antiretroviral drug some HIV-negative people use to prevent being infected with HIV during sex, was the focus of its 31-day series, which used a mix of fact-checking, myths and facts, infographics, editorials and social media to serve its community by debunking rumors.
Poynter’s 2014 coverage of LGBTQ media stories:
Lessons Learned from Grantland’s Tragic Story on Dr. V
How the Tampa Bay Times reported on a transgender kid’s prom bid
Janet Mock Won’t ‘be thrown into a corner as the trans correspondent’ at Marie Claire
Resources for reporters on all beats (including sports) who cover LGBT people
On ESPN, Michael Sam and anonymous sources: ‘This should be an educational moment’
Here are some resources for the transgender day of remembrance
