© 2009-2012
Trans Media Watch

Charity registered in England
Number 1144430
 

Guidance for the Media - The Dangers Faced by Trans People

Trans people remain one of the most misunderstood and ridiculed groups in society. Responses to their very existence can range from snide amusement to rage and even physical assault. In some, the challenge to the seeming certainty of gender can produce a reaction of visceral, unthinking hate.

The role of the media in shaping society’s attitudes in many areas is well documented and recent research conducted by Trans Media Watch (‘How Transgender People Experience the Media’, April 2010 >) has provided clear evidence of the effect that the media portrayal of trans people has on their lives.

In this study of 256 trans people between November 2009 and February 2010:

  • 70% felt that media portrayals of transgender people were either negative or very negative, and 78% that these portrayals were either inaccurate or highly inaccurate. And – in a damning comment on the level of disconnection trans people feel – 95% responded that they felt the media did not care what transgender people feel about this question.

  • 67% said that seeing negative items in the media made them feel angry. Over half said it made them feel unhappy, 35% that they felt excluded and 20% even felt frightened. Said one:

    "Negative experiences can be so very damaging. What troubles me is how common it is to see almost throwaway references to trans people that are so cruel and damaging no one would consider saying it about anyone else or group... And what is even scarier is how common place and accepted it is. There are weeks when I will see several examples, especially in sitcoms or discussion programmes or films that will simply reference how freaky, disgusting or hilarious trans people can be. Sitcoms especially seem to have picked this group recently... and more and more I see cheap bad jokes made at the expense of trans people."

Worse, the effect of media ridicule and the ritualised humiliation of trans people was clear:

  • 21% of respondents had received verbal abuse which they believed was associated with the representations of trans people in the media, on at least one occasion.

  • 20% reported having received negative reactions at work which they could trace to an item in the media, and - shockingly – 12% reported negative reactions from service providers. One trans woman referenced being called a "female transvestite" by a doctor, “like something from a British sitcom."

  • 36% reported that media representations of trans people had precipitated negative reactions amongst their family and friends.

    Comments included...

    "An article by Julie Bindel about how damaging gender reassignment surgery was led my family to say that I was mentally ill and ruining my life and needed help."

    "I lost my family - parents and siblings - because of the way this is portrayed by the media."

    "My mother's perceptions of trans people derived almost exclusively from what she'd seen portrayed on television - she referenced various programmes in an attempt to paint trans people as pathetic, unconvincing and inherently narcissistic. She rejected all suggestion that transsexual people could ever be in any way 'normal'. She has now refused contact for several years."

The seriousness of this issue cannot be overstated. Transitioning often places immense (routinely terminal) strain on family and social networks. A study by Press for Change and Manchester Metropolitan University in 2005 based on 86,000 emails and a quantitative review of data from 872 trans people, (which also indicated that a staggering 73% had been harassed in a public place, and 10% had been victims of threatening behaviour) reported that 45% of those surveyed experienced family breakdown because of their gender identity, with 37% reporting that other family members no longer speak to them or exclude them from family events. 25% of trans people (twice the UK average) live in privately rented accommodation, having often lost their own property.

Many trans people lose a great deal when they face what they must do, and present themselves to the world as who they know they are. Loss of marriage, access to children, home, possessions, financial assets, wider family and friends is very common. Discrimination in the workplace, overt or covert, remains routine and, despite legislation, hard to challenge. The PfC/MMU study indicated that 10% had been verbally abused and 6% physically assaulted at work. A significant proportion of trans people are forced to change their jobs, passed over for promotion or otherwise excluded, despite limited provision in law to protect them. A greater proportion than the national average become unemployed, or set up in self employment because they are unable to find work.

Trans people continue to be doorstepped by the media or indefensibly ‘outed’ by journalists who sometimes seek only to write a piece that will appeal to prejudice. And invasive, unfair treatment of this sort only makes their lives worse.

35% of trans people reported at least one suicide attempt linked to their gender identity (PfC/MMU).

Amongst younger trans people the situation can be even worse. 64% of young trans men, and 44% of trans women reported being bullied at school, including by teachers. (PfC/MMU)

In short, bring together a group of transpeople and ask for their own experiences of discrimination and harassment and you will be faced with a cascade. Stories of being laughed at in the street, being called names, being refused service in shops, restaurants or even hospitals, being spat on, and being filmed on mobile phones by strangers will appear. And it won’t be long before you are likely also to hear the stories of assault by strangers, being attacked by mobs whilst at home, having property vandalised.

If you choose to write to appeal to base prejudice, for the sake of creating cheap, accessible copy, you are making a direct contribution to the fear and bigotry with which many trans people, who wish only to continue with their lives quietly and discreetly, have to live.

For some trans people that prejudice can end their lives. A highly conservative estimate of the numbers murdered in 2009 worldwide for being transgender is 143 - including crimes in the UK (this figure is based upon recorded murders, though in some countries of South America, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, trans people are killed with virtual impunity and their deaths go unreported). Fieldworkers are reporting evidence that the overt hostility of the Papacy to trans people is encouraging hate crime in strongly Catholic countries.

BM TMW - LONDON - WC1N 3XX