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GLAAD, MTPC take on Herald for ’offensive coverage of transgender people’ by Laura Kiritsy
Editor-in-chiefFriday Jul 11, 2008 In response to the Boston Herald’s sensational coverage of the bust of Brighton prostitution ring that allegedly involved transgender prostitutes, the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) are calling on their members to contact the Boston Herald to register their displeasure with the paper’s repeated use of the word "trannies" in its coverage.
A little advice to the folks at the Herald: Don’t ignore complaints of anti-transgender bias. In a less enlightened era in Bay Windows history, LGBT activists flung poo at the Bay Windows front door after then-editor Jeff Epperly refused to refer to trans woman murder victim Rita Hester with female pronouns in our coverage of the murder. Although our coverage warranted having shit flung our way, it wasn’t pretty.
We’ll have more on this story as it develops, but below is the action alert MTPC sent out this afternoon urging folks to contact the Herald.
GLAAD and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) Call on Boston Herald to Apologize for Offensive Coverage of Transgender People
July 11, 2008 - The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) are encouraging people to contact the Boston Herald and ask editors to apologize for the paper’s offensive slurs and sensationalistic coverage of transgender people.
On July 7, the paper posted an article online about a police operation headlined "Undercover ’john’ takes on trannies, pimps" and focused on a Boston-area detective who goes undercover to arrest sex workers. The article repeatedly referred to transgender women as "trannies" and opened the story by describing how the detective has been "trapped inside houses of ill repute by giant naked trannies." The article was also published in the July 8 print edition.
Read the articlehere.
This article repeatedly uses anti-transgender slurs and fails to treat its subjects with basic human decency. These sorts of slurs should be unacceptable in any credible news outlet to publish as quoted matter, much less in a staff writer’s article.
GLAAD and MTPC separately contacted the Boston Herald reporter, Jessica Van Sack, to ask her to remove the defamatory terminology and descriptions from the article and to offer suggestions and recommendations on how to cover transgender people fairly. The reporter did not respond to calls or emails. GLAAD and MTPC are encouraging people to contact the paper and let them know that this cheap, tabloid sensationalism is unacceptable.
Please contact the Boston Herald and call on them to issue an apology. Tell them that they are failing to meet basic standards of journalistic integrity and that they must remove the defamatory terminology and references from the article.
Boston Herald Contacts:
Jessica Van Sack
City Reporter
jvansack@bostonherald.com
(617) 619-6437
Joe Dwinell
City Executive Co-Editor
jdwinell@bostonherald.com
(617) 619-6177
Kevin Convey
Editor in Chief
kconvey@bostonherald.com
(617) 619-6403
GLAAD & MTPC Contacts:
Paul Karr, Director of Media Field Strategy, GLAAD
(646) 871-8022, karr@glaad.org
Gunner Scott, Director, MTPC
(617) 778-0519, gscott@masstpc.org
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