Republicans at all levels of government are trying their best to make it seem like being transphobic is the “normal” and “standard” way of life here in the United States. And while structural and systemic transphobia are legitimate issues, it’s simply not the case that the average person is walking around with so much hate and anger in their heart. For example, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), as highlighted by LGBTQ+ outlet them, more than 70% of adults in the U.S. say they support trans rights. The same group of adults in the U.S. who participated in the survey said they believe trans folks should be able to live without “violence” and “discrimination.” More than 65% of respondents said they believe trans folks should have access to safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care.
Where do the results differ, though? When we look at respondents who consume a lot of right-wing media and news. When we dig into those numbers, it’s pretty bleak: Less than one-third of respondents who consume only right-wing media believe trans folks should have “equal treatment” under the law, for example. Roughly the same percentage of that group feel that trans folks want “more rights” than is fair.
RELATED STORY: Former hopeful for Mississippi governor calls for trans allies to be put to death by firing squad
Just over half of respondents who consume only right-wing media believe that trans folks would be best served if we “helped” them live as the sex they were assigned at birth. Now, what that’s effectively saying is that we should deny people gender-affirming health care, which we know to be lifesaving health care, as well as referring to people by their deadnames and incorrect pronouns, among other things. That’s truly sickening and scary. It also harkens back to the rhetoric widely used to support LGBTQ+ conversion therapy.
In terms of media, we both need more coverage and more positive, accurate coverage of trans folks and trans rights. Just over 50% of respondents said their media consumption did not cover trans or nonbinary people or issues in the week prior to responding to the survey. Nearly an additional quarter of respondents said they were unsure if their news sources cover those stories at all.
About 30% of respondents said they didn’t see positive representations of trans folks in their news consumption. Similarly, about one in three respondents said the coverage they did see did not show them stories that made it clear trans folks are like themselves or their family, and about one in three said news stories didn’t show trans folks living “everyday” lives.
But simply having more coverage is not necessarily a good thing; fearmongering, hysteria, and hate-driven coverage by far-right sources is obviously negative. If you’re wondering why swimmer Lia Thomas gets so much attention, for example, this is probably why. Her story is easy to warp into right-wing hysteria even though a slightly closer look at her situation and data shows her performance (and win) is not only earned but relatively ordinary.
Going back to structural transphobia, it’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t just a matter of opinion or people seeing things differently. Hate and discrimination have a real impact on daily life, opportunities, and safety. For example, the unemployment rate for trans and nonbinary folks is three times the rate of the general population. Nearly one-third of openly trans people have been denied care by a medical provider. Similarly, nearly one-third of trans people of color say they have no health insurance coverage at all.
Roughly half of nonbinary and trans youth report being mocked by their family because of their identity, a particularly horrifying statistic when we know that having supportive families can reduce mental health distress in trans youth.
What to do with this data? If nothing else, I think it’s an excellent reminder that the news we consume has a huge impact on our views, especially if we are not already educated or exposed to the issues of the hour. It’s all too easy for folks who aren’t familiar with trans rights (or the queer community at all) to believe false and inaccurate statements spewed from the mouths of reporters and anchors they trust.
To counter all of this cruelty, we must maintain responsible and accurate in our coverage, and we must center the voices and lives of trans and nonbinary folks—including their wins, victories, and accomplishments—as much as possible. It is the only ethical thing to do.
