The United States is facing a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, especially bills restricting the rights of transgender people. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in the 2023 legislative session, there are that have been introduced around the country, including 77 that have already been passed as of June 23, 2023.
In June 2020, a group of transgender journalists decided to form a collective in order to support other trans and nonbinary journalists in the face of this wave of transphobia, as well as to create resources for the media at large. This network, initially founded on Facebook and Slack, became the (TJA), which now encompasses hundreds of members internationally.聽
Kae Petrin, one of the founders of TJA, is a trans and nonbinary journalist currently working as a Data & Graphics Reporter for Chalkbeat, a newsroom that covers the U.S. education system.聽
In the face of this legislation, Petrin spoke about the questions that many trans journalists ask themselves: 鈥淎m I looking at that every day? Am I thinking about that every day? Am I doing that work? Or am I just trying to put my head down and cover something else?鈥澛�
They added, 鈥淚 think for a lot of people, there’s an immense amount of stress with what needs to be covered right now, and whether or not we’re going to be the ones that cover it.鈥�
Petrin’s main area of coverage is not specifically LGBTQ+ issues, but their identity informs some reporting decisions.聽
鈥淎nyone from communities that have coded language used against them in legislation can sometimes be more sensitive to trends, or more observant of trends. It can be a reporting edge to some degree鈥�, they said. In educational data especially, Petrin noted that data often excludes trans people 鈥� something they have personally experienced. 鈥淭he question becomes, who’s not in this form? And what does that mean for school funding?鈥�
In some newsrooms, Petrin said, trans journalists are heavily scrutinized by editors when they seek to cover LGBTQ+ issues, or even prevented from doing so altogether. In others, however, trans journalists 鈥斅爋ften the only trans person in their newsroom 鈥斅燾an be 鈥渂oxed into鈥� reporting on these topics.聽
As an organization, the TJA seeks to support journalists facing these kinds of pressures in a number of ways, including providing for newsrooms and advice for employers. With the support of an organization and the 鈥減ower of the collective voice,鈥� as Petrin put it, many found editors were more willing to make changes.聽
As legislation increasingly targets the trans community, Petrin does see growth in coverage of trans issues. 鈥淭he baseline trans story in 2016, 2019, was often just really bad鈥�, they said. 鈥淚 think newsrooms are thinking about this really hard, and they recognize that the trans issues and the legislation is impacting us and trans lives are important to cover and important to get right. And I think we do see a lot of places that are doing solid coverage and just applying Journalism 101 to the work that they are doing.鈥�
This article was published as part of a series on LGBTQ+ journalists around the world. To read the rest of the series, click here.