GLAAD and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) Call on Boston

[Natasha]

GLAAD and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) Call on Boston Herald to Apologize for Offensive Coverage of Transgender People

http://www.glaad.org/action/calls_archive_detail.php?id=4504
7/11/2008

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."

[Shana A]

GLAAD, MTPC take on Herald for 'offensive coverage of transgender people'
by Laura Kiritsy
Editor-in-chief
Friday Jul 11, 2008

http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=blog&sc2=news&sc3=&id=77352

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 pooh 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 ->-bleeped-<- flung our way, it wasn't pretty.

[NicholeW.]

I presume something must have worked. I read the online stories and the word used was "transsexual." Nary a "trannie" to be found.

Nichole