5 ways to improve mainstream reporting on trans issues

[Shana A]

5 ways to improve mainstream reporting on trans issues
February 28, 2011 - 04:00 PM

By Amanda Hess

http://www.tbd.com/blogs/amanda-hess/2011/02/-cross-dressing-crimes-and-trans-reporting-8995.html

Last week, local Arlington blog ARLnow.com published a short post—with accompanying photograph—of a shoplifting suspect detained outside the Pentagon City mall. Entitled "Cops Nab Cross-Dressing Shoplifting Suspect," the piece identified the suspect as a "six-foot tall man dressed as a woman" who had "allegedly stolen an item from a store in the Pentagon City mall." (TBD later aggregated the story under a similar headline).

The blog's commenters completed the story with: Austin Powers references ("it's a man, baby!"); Ross "cross" Dress for Less jokes; and critiques of the suspect's fashion choices.But the coverage gave one commenter pause.