OPINION: Do the media really care about trans rights?

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As part of being a journalist, I think it is vital to share stories that matter to yourself just as much as they matter to the wider public. I don't know if that is controversial - because there is the whole rhetoric of being objective as a journalist, but there are some things that you can't just stay neutral on. This is one of them.

I believe it is vital to uplift voices that are often silenced by the media. Through doing this, as part of assignments and general interest, I have covered numerous trans-focused stories across my two years at BCU (although not all are published here). I recently posted a video on TikTok about Scotland's gender reform bill that was met with significant amounts of hate from commenters saying it was "immoral" and sharing their negative and bigoted opinions. And, as well, I read the news. I can see the headlines. And it feels like nothing is getting better for trans people in the UK, and the media must step up and talk about it properly.

The recent murder of Brianna Ghey is one of the most heartbreaking stories that has come across my feed in a long time. At aged just sixteen, she was brave enough to come out and be herself in a country that is openly overturning trans rights. And she was met with what is being described as a "targeted attack", which ultimately took her life.

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2022 had 38 deaths minimum recorded where trans people were killed using violent means. This figure is nearly equal to the most violent year on record, which was in 2020, when forty trans people were recorded as murdered. These are figures which make my heart sink, and it is awful to see it play out in the news already - only 42 days into 2023 (when Brianna was killed).

There's not even peace in the media after such tragic events. Publications such as the Times - presumably well-established papers - came under fire recently for using Brianna's deadname in their articles. This is disrespectful at best, and an act of aggression at worst, because they are deliberately erasing Brianna's trans identity. And it's not like they published her deadname and then changed it when they were corrected, which is really the only right way round to do things like that, but no. The Times deleted the version that called Brianna the right name, and worse still, any mention of her being a girl at all. It is disgusting that even in death, trans people are denied the basic right of having an identity.

This really is the tip of a very troubling iceberg, and it's not all the media's fault. The transgender debate coverage is wide, and therefore, there needs to be a thought spared for public opinion, too.

YouGov reported there was an "erosion" in the support for trans rights across the UK since 2018. Their report called on evidence such as the government excluding transgender people from the conversion therapy ban, although this received wide public disdain.

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The article goes on to say that two-thirds of Britons paid "little to no attention" to the transgender rights debate, although nearly half recognized that there was discrimination against the community. One of the significant issues raised by those surveyed was the issue of socially transiting versus 'legally' transitioning.

If you socially transition, you are 'out' in the sense that you use a different name, and pronouns and present yourself differently (in most cases), and not changing any gender marker on your documents. However, 'legally' transitioning involves the obtaining of a GRC (Gender Recognition Certificate) which changes your assigned gender at birth to the gender that you have transitioned to.

YouGov's poll revealed it was almost an even split between people believing you should and shouldn't be able to change your 'legal gender' on official documents - with 23% being 'unsure.' Although the overall consensus was one should be able to legally and socially change their gender, most believe it shouldn't be made easier to do so.

The respondents mostly believed that there should continue to be approval from a doctor before someone can legally transition, and generally believe a trans person should live as their 'new' gender for at least two years to gain recognition. The full details of this survey can be found here.

The thought process about living as your new gender for two years brings me to my next point nicely. A recurring narrative in the debate around transgender individuals is the idea of their detransitioning. Data from 2021 revealed that only 6.9% of adults discharged from clinics met the criteria to be considered as 'detransitioning', which is an astronomically small number. Furthermore, these detransition statistics give a deeper look into how the reported figures are often flawed. Considering 97% of trans people are happy with their transition, it should not be used as ammunition that 3% of people are not. This narrative has been widely criticised by the community, but it begs the question, why are the media trying to make the issue so much bigger than it is?

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Moving on from this, we should briefly look into the way the media coverage connects with politicians. I am not going to share anything that is polemic or overtly political, but it is important to think of the way politicians feed into media coverage. Kwasi Kwarteng has said on Talk TV that only people with "the capacity to give birth" are women. For me, this is such a problematic idea because here's some food for thought: around 9-15% of cisgender women do not have the "capacity" to give birth. Are they any less of a woman? No, of course not. But the obsession around what sex and gender 'really means' opens the doors for this kind of discrimination, which at this point, doesn't only harm the trans community. Comments like these harm a lot of people.

Gender should be never determined by what your body can do. These kind of conversations have no place in the media, and continually pushing the rhetoric that gender is so cut-and-dry is just alienating and demoralizing.

Being a part of the LGBT community, it is deeply upsetting for me to watch the community struggle in the way they are right now. There are numerous reports on how the media is failing transgender individuals, and as a journalist, I feel like it is our responsibility to change the way the news is covering such issues. It is not and will never be an overnight fix, but all we can do is uplift trans voices and keep pushing positive and important transgender stories.

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