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Amanda Hess has a piece up in the Washington Weekly, entitled Who Botched the Gender Identity of a D.C. Homicide Victim? It’s a well researched piece on how the Washington DC media kept getting Tyli’a “NaNa Boo” Mack’s wrong per the Associated Press Stylebook and the GLAAD Media Guide’s Transgender Glossary. Here’s Ms. Hess’ statement on who said what:
Within three hours of the incident, three local news sources had independently verified the victims’ gender identity with police. They all got it wrong.
Fox 5 news reporter Roby Chavez gave this report at 3:59 p.m., about an hour and a half after the stabbings occurred. “D.C. Police sources tell Fox 5 officers found two transgender male victims in front of the building when they arrived,” Chavez reported.
At 4:36 p.m., the Washington Post’s Paul Duggan filed his item on the stabbing, also published in the next day’s paper. “Police said the victims, whom they described as ‘transgender males,’ were stabbed shortly after 2:30 p.m. in the 200 block of Q Street NW.”
WUSA9’s Bill Starks weighed in at 5:23 p.m.: “Officers…arrived and found two transgender males in front of the building at 209 Q Street, both suffering from stab wounds.”
The Washington Blade’s Lou Chibbaro was the first to nail down the correct gender identity of the homicide victim, who has since been identified under her legal name, Joshua Mack, as well as her chosen name, Tyli’a. At 7:06 p.m., four-and-a-half hours after the incident occurred, Chibbaro wrote, “One transgender woman was stabbed to death Wednesday and another was in stable condition with stab wounds from an unknown assailant.”
But even after Mack’s correct gender identity was established, the struggle continued. In “D.C. Transgender Community Outraged After Fatal Stabbing”—filed more than 24 hours after the incident occurred—ABC 7 reporter Sam Ford announced: “One transgender is dead, another is in critical condition.”
Mack was not a “transgender male,” a “transgender man,” or a “transgender.” Mack was a male-to-female transgender woman who clearly appeared to be female. On the reward poster for her homicide, she’s shown wearing eye shadow, shaped eyebrows, and two long braids. “Of course, when the one young lady was murdered and the other was hospitalized, we were quite upset [with the media coverage] because they aren’t transgender men—they are transgender women,” says Brian Watson, the director of Transgender Health Empowerment, which counted both victims as clients. “I know both of the young ladies that were attacked, and they lived their lives as transgender women. They looked like women. For me, there shouldn’t have been any confusion about them being males. If you saw them on the street, you would see they were females.”
The media blamed the police. Here’s what Ms. Hess wrote on that:
Chavez, Duggan, and Starks all attributed the “transgender males” identification to “police sources.” Duggan says that the department’s public information office provided him the term. “The police department put it out there, and we went on what they said,” says Duggan. Starks got even more specific, sourcing the terminology to Quintin Peterson, the public information officer on duty when news of the stabbings broke. “‘Transgender males’—those were his exact words,” says Starks. “I’m not trying to get him in trouble or anything, but that’s what was said.”
Peterson denies that the police originated the term. “‘Transgender males’ was never used. Not by me or anyone in this office,” he says. “We cannot be held responsible for the terminology the news media chooses to use. We did not put anything out other than what the correct terminology is.” Acting Lieutenant Brett Parson, the police department’s top liaison to the GLBT community who was on scene shortly following the stabbing, similarly defers the misidentification to media reports. “It’s the media that seems fixated on their gender identity. That issue did not come from the chief of police,” says Parson. “We’ve had to correct the media on countless occasions because they have been reporting, insensitively, terms that are not used in the community.
My head hurts. So nobody is responsible for the D.C. media getting it a victim’s gender identity wrong?
The difficulty seems to me to be that this isn’t the first story involving trans women as the victims of violence in DC. Even if the police did give unclear gender information to the media, why is it that the DC media is so inept that can’t get ask the right questions of police, the families, or the local transgender service organization so they do get the gender identity of transgender people correct by their own efforts?
Frankly, some days I get tired of seeing teaching mode required for people and/or organizations that are in a city with a significant sized trans population — geez, it’s not like the D.C. media hasn’t covered a number of stories on previous occasions about trans people and issues. When do we just get to hold media — such as the media in Washington DC — responsible for not doing their jobs adequately on trans coverage?
Well, I’m starting now: The media in Washington D.C. failed in covering this story; they are responsible for their failures when they could have, and should have, got the victim identifications for the two trans women victims correct. These news organizations should publicly own up to their failures, and stop blaming the police for their own failures to do the homework and ask the right questions.
10 Comments
the MSM? LOL!The mainstream media couldn’t even suss out that a war was being started for absolutely no reason. They are reporting on the democrats death panels as if it was anything other than a paranoid right wing fantasy. They treat climate change skeptics as serious in the name of “balance.”
Why would we expect them to get pronouns right.
And they hire Dubya’s kids (well, one of them – so far anyway)
Education, education, educationLet’s not be so quick to bash; Let’s try to understand and educate. Isn’t that what we’re always asking of the “straight” community?
It seems to be a matter of semantics. A transgender “female” seems to describe how she became female. A transgender “male” seems to describe a male who went there (female). I know the difference between “seems” and “is”, but I also know the difference between “what we want” and “the way things are”.
I know I’m probably way behind some of you with your word labels, but I bet I’m pretty much the norm when it comes to where the majority is at. I never got the “T” part of LGBT until some nice person on this blog politely explained it to me.
Media complaintsComplain complain complain! I called after I saw the first broadcast to correct them on channel 7. It seemed to get worse and over night channel 7 must have decided to go even further. I sent them a link to the AP style guide you posted. What frustrated me though was when they interviewed her brother and he referred to her as a “him” and “my brother” so who knows… maybe in a tortured way they thought they were respecting the families wishes…naw…they just don’t have a clue. I’m surprised they didnt provide commentary speculating on which restroom she used and maybe thats why she was stabbed to death. My heart goes out to Tylia, her family and friends. I hope and pray their attackers are found and brought to justice soon… and that the DC media outlets receive a hailstorm of comments and complaints.
“Complain complain complain!”You got a point there. Sometimes the only way to educate the unwilling is to “Complain complain complain!”
Wouldn’t the very best headline be…“Innocent life ended by brutal violence?” Sub headlined, “Another innocent victim seriously injured in attack?”
Everything else is titillation.
Media blaming the police? C’mon…Washington DC Metro Police have an award winning GLBT liaison program. Lt. Brett Parsons is an outstanding cop and I know that if he was involved that the department would have made sure to get the gender identity of Ms. Mack correct.
When the reports were first circulated , , ,. . . I immediately assumed the victims were MBTs (FTMs). Then I was confused, because some reports started referring to the victims as transgender women. Then I realized the initial reports were in error.
If the media were relying solely on a police source in initial reports, I wouldn’t blame the media for those initial reports. However, once more infomation got out, it was time for the media to make corrections.
Often, with breaking news, the first reports are often garbled in one way or another, and a clearer picture of the incident being reported only unfolds as more information is received.
Call me a cynicBut if ya ask me, they did it knowing full well that when they played up the gender difference, their story would get more attention. Calling the victims “transgender males” and then showing a picture, which was described as very feminine, just highlights the difference and objectifies the people into freaks.
It’s the same, no doubt, as the media in Massachusetts using the headline “Bathroom Bill” for their trans inclusive legislation, when they know full well it wasn’t about bathrooms. It’s just good, attention grabbing, copy and if the reporters didn’t use it I’m sure the editors would.
We tend to forget, I think, that the media is profit driven and that any method by which they can possibly increase profits will be used, integrity be damned.
Fact checking….? Never heard of it….The “professional” journalists often deride the blogosphere because they’re paid professionals, with degrees and everything. Well, if they can’t get some background and check their facts, it’s no wonder that the dinosaurs are facing extinction. Thank you, Pam, for devoting the time to explain it to the MSM in very simple words.