GLAAD With Two A’s

First GLAD with one “A” has just changed their name from Gay and Lesbians Advocates and Defenders to GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.

Okay, back to GLAAD. They just released a report on trans bathrooms and the media, Debunking the Bathroom Bill” Myth Accurate Reporting on Nondiscrimination: A Guide for Journalists and some of the thing that they recommend are…

Best Practices in Media Coverage

Interview transgender people themselves
The best sources to talk to about anti-transgender discrimination are the people who experience these acts firsthand. Hearing from transgender people clarifies and humanizes the issues they face and debunks discredited and harmful falsehoods. It’s also important to talk to the family members and coworkers of transgender people. They can provide readers and viewers with a greater understanding of how the discrimination transgender people face also impacts their friends and family.

Some of the other ideas that they suggest are,

• Include stories from a diverse array of local transgender people about the effects of discrimination on their own lives
• Use accurate and appropriate language

Then they talk about using the dreaded “Bathroom Bill”

Avoid reducing the complexity of the policy down to a "bathroom bill"
Refer to these laws or ordinances as nondiscrimination laws/ordinances, or call the law or ordinance by its name (for example, Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or HERO). The term "bathroom bill" is an inaccurate phrase created by those who oppose nondiscrimination laws that protect LGBT people. The term is designed to, among other things, incite panic and fear at the prospect of encountering a transgender person in a public restroom. It is also inaccurate, because most of these bills address a far broader range of discrimination protections than restroom access. Accurate reporting will discuss all of the various areas of life in which LGBT people will be protected, from fairness in housing, to equal opportunity in the workplace. If a bill explicitly addresses the use of restrooms and locker rooms within its public accommodations provisions, it is important to contextualize it within the larger issue of anti-transgender discrimination.

But I think that the news media likes to use the term because of exactly why they say not to use it, “The term is designed to, among other things, incite panic and fear at the prospect of encountering a transgender person in a public restroom” because the sensationalism sells newspapers.

They go on to list other thing to do or not do like not using images of bathrooms (yeah, right do you thing they will avoid using those images?) or to challenge the opposition on their so called facts.

Unfortunately, most media outlets will do what sells the most views not what is right. We were lucky here in Connecticut most of the news outlets were in favor of the legislation.

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When I got home from this morning's meeting the power was out from the high winds we had with the overnight storm and the winds are continuing. The high to day was 65 and the temperature is dropping to below freezing tonight.