Media coverage of transgender murders

Imagine how the media thought and spoke about African Americans in the
South in the 1950s. Imagine how their upbringing perpetuated their bigoted
beliefs and how that was reflected in their writings. You might think this
could never happen today, right? But there is a class of people that are
still treated that way. A class that people will say, in all seriousness,
that they "know" about you because they saw your "kind on the Jerry
Springer show. Imagine if your girlfriend's mother says they understand you
because Bob her husband works at the jail, and sees all "kinds". Imagine if
every movie that you watched, where there was a person like you in it, that
person was either a murderer, murdered or was a sex worker. What if people
like you were diagnosed with a disorder just as gays were in the 70's just
for being yourself. What if instead of typical nouns used to describe you
people used a clinical diagnosis? How would that make you feel? That is how
I see our media everyday. I am a transgender person.

Shelly Prevost
Director of "Isn't Obvious?"

The evolution of the Mercury New's coverage of transgender events.

The media coverage of transgender murders consistently sensationalizes the tragedy. The news media is relatively uneducated about transgender people and make many incorrect assumptions. In their attempt to sell more newspapers they unscrupulously mislead the public. We have been working with the Mercury News to improve their coverage. The following are the common ways the Mercury News sensationalizes their stories:

Tricking the murder

A common approach is to blame the victim. The assumption is that the victim was trying to trick the murder into having gay sex. The follows quotes are from the Mercury News"

" Nabors testified that Magidson had been ``tricked'' once before by a man dressed as a woman in San Francisco"

"Defense attorneys for the accused have said the young men were deceived by
Araujo, whom they knew as a beautiful 19-year-old girl named Linda. They
became enraged when, after a night of heavy drinking at Merely's house, a
girl followed Carcajou into the bathroom and discovered the teen was
anatomically male."

Araujo ``perpetrated a sexual fraud on heterosexual men who, when
discovering they had been having sex with a man, had their masculinity,
sexual identity and self-esteem called into question at a time when they
had been drinking heavily,''

"Within a week, at least a dozen people had heard the tale about the guys who supposedly killed a beautiful 17-year-old when they discovered ``she'' was really a boy in women's clothing."

If you think that someone deliberately deceived you into doing something that you might not otherwise have done, its seems justified to be mad. By looking deeper into what happened that night a different picture emerges. Gwen was only seventeen. She had been living as a girl for 3 years. She lived her life true to herself. It's true that heterosexual men were attracted to her as they would be to any pretty girl. Gwen was attracted to men just as most other girls her age. The feeling was mutual an honest. Unfortunately, the men were raise to believe that they would be gay if they had sex with a transgender person. Little did they know that most gay men are not attracted to people like Gwen. They are attracted to men, to masculine cues, that is why they are gay men. One of the defendants actually thought he was now gay after having sex with Gwen. It's amazing how little the heterosexual world knows about the GLBT community. But where would they get there information? Many don't have first hand knowledge, so all they can go on is what they see and read in the media, hear at school and church. .

Using old male names and pronouns with feminine names in quotes.

The Mercury always uses the male name even if it has been legally changed and no longer used. When Alina Barragan (a San Jose, transgender youth, murdered 3 years ago ) was murder the Mercury News continued to describe her as a man and used her old name even though she had it change on legal documents such as her driver license. All transgender people are referred to by their old names no matter what the legal status of their name change.

Yomi Wronge was the most frequent Mercury news Reporter on the Gwen Araujo Murder has finally been allowed to use a respectful writing style!

On Oct. 3, 2003, one year after Gwen's murder Yomi Wronge wrote her first GLAAD compliant article about Gwen's Murder. Since the main impediment to sensitive reporting was due to the editors, I can only assume that the new editors decided to interpret there new guidelines in a sensitive way. Thank you Yomi, Tepps, Yarnold and everyone else for making the Mercury News a better more sensitive news source.

Yomi Wronge's Old Reporting Style

One of the worst articles about Gwen's murder was written by Mercury News columnist Joe Rodriguez.

"I belong to that ethnic group. We are politically liberal but socially
conservative. A lot us know where the line is, Eddie's family included. A
Latino son's sexual orientation is strictly family business."

"I'm not challenging the transgender lifestyle. Gay boys and girls
discovering their true nature is a fact of life. Get used to it. But is it
a good idea for the transgender ones to cross-dress in public while they're
so young, trusting and vulnerable?"

"Shouldn't we tell them society can't protect them every minute of every day
from hate-filled thugs?"

Joe Rodriguez Column

When the news services began reporting about the murder of transgender youth Gwen Araujo the coverage was so inaccurate, offensive and sensational that it ignited a massive response form the GLBT community. As part of that educational process in Nov. we met with the Mercury News to discuss issues in covering transgender news events. At that time we provided the Mercury News with a list of factual inaccuracies and a longer list of insensitivities. We offered the services of an internationally known transgender lecturer to help educate their staff. We recommended that they adopt and follow the GLAAD media guidelines. The Mercury News responded by and announcing to us and to their readership that they were in the process of reviewing their policies in this area. The Mercury New's coverage did improve somewhat. They stopped using pronouns when describing Gwen, but continued to use her male name followed by Gwen in quotes.

Letter to David Yarnold, Executive Editor San Jose Mercury News.

 Style Guide Recommendations.

In Sept. of 2003, almost one year after Gwen's murder, the San Jose Mercury News issued an updated version of their guidelines. Unfortunately, they decided to ignore most of the advise of the GLBT community and create their own guide. Basically, it says its OK to speak respectfully of transgender people unless it's a hard news ( read murder ) item. Then it's up to the senior editors and we have already seen the results of that. ( click here to read the new guidelines ). David Yarnold has moved on to a new position and David Tepps has taken over. Tepps has refused to discuss how the new guidelines will be applied. There is nothing in the new guidelines that requires them to change their reporting style. We will have to wait until Yomi writes her next article before we can tell how the guidelines will be interpreted. .

Komment Article

We've seen this scenario lead to a horrible end in real life with Brandon
Teena and in countless bad TV movies and films: the girl's really a guy
and other guys freak out. I can't help but think someone should have seen
this coming, a disaster waiting to happen.

Gwen Smith Rebuttal

Julie Marin Response to media

Bill Romano of the Mercury News, reporting on Alina Barragan's, AKA Eredia, murder:

"If anyone had been watching when Kozi Scott grappled with Manuel Reyes Eredia in Scott's home a year ago and wondered who was winning, there would have been little doubt that the 260-pound Eredia held the upper hand. "

Full Article of Alina Barragan’s murder