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Media Issues

Introduction | Good Practice Advice | Good Practice Examples | Published Apologies | Discriminatory Examples | Regulation, Advice and Complaints | Complaint Cases | Newspapers and Periodicals | Stage Productions | Film | Television | Radio | Online and Digital Media | DVD Video and CD resources available offline

"The Press Complaints Commission, which adjudicates on complaints under the Code, has always regarded trans individuals as covered by the general provisions of the Discrimination clause. However the Editors’ Committee - which writes and revises the Code - has accepted that following the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act [in 2004], it was appropriate that more specific cover should be given."
Press Release from the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee, May 5th, 2005

[top]Introduction

Current Issues and Strategy

It is generally acknowledged nowadays that the decade since approximately 1995 witnessed a sea change in public opinion towards trans people in both the UK and many other parts of the world.

At the start of that decade, media attention was generally something that trans people had every reason to fear. It meant losing a job overnight. It could mean having petrol poured through your letterbox and having to move. Even if the reporting wasn’t about you personally, the kind of inaccurate stereotypes and prejudiced views put forward in all media about trans people as a group constituted a deeply oppressive experience. Media representation could be seen as both a cause and a mirror of social exclusion and that experience has left wounds in the psyche of many trans people for understandable reasons.

Yet, before ten years was out, two pieces of legislation had transformed the employment and Human Rights protection available to ordinary trans folk in the UK; case law had confirmed the legal right to medical treatment on the NHS; trans people (real and fictitious) had earned places as lovable TV celebrities; a succession of excellent TV programmes and films received prestigious nominations and awards, and the bodies that regulate newspapers and broadcasters in this country were learning to cope with a newly empowered trans community, determined to use the same powers that are supposed to protect all other citizens from bad programme making and journalism. It’s almost becoming “cool” to be trans.

So, although all of the media can be said to have had a significant hand in painting the past negative, stigmatising, backdrop for trans people’s lives for decades, those same channels for news, opinion and entertainment have also played a very significant role in the process of change — sometimes LEADING public opinion, and sometimes, of late, realising that they had to run to catch up with it.

Particular media landmark events to be celebrated in hindsight include :

  • The academy award nomination and generally positive interest associated with the film “TransAmerica” in 2006 (for which we thank our US campaigning peers, working to educate Hollywood)
  • The revision of the UK Press Complaints Code in 2005, after extensive lobbying by Press for Change activists
  • Changes in the BBC’s guidance to programme makers, following a series of successful complaints by PFC activists from 2004-5
  • A significant adjudication against one TV advertiser by the communications regulator OFCOM in 2004, following PFC activist complaints about soft drinks and ice cream commercials in poor taste
  • The famous winning run by Nadia Almada in the 2004 reality TV programme “Big Brother”, giving rise to a brief but welcome run of positive media articles, reversing initial negativity.
  • The elimination of porno/graphic advertising next to Google search results about trans related legislation, legal cases, self-help groups and healthcare providers, following a PFC-inspired international lobby in 2003
  • The Oscar won by Hilary Swank for her portrayal of the murdered trans man Brandon Teena in the 1999 film “Boys Don’t Cry”
  • And, last but not least, since 1998 the fictional Coronation Street character “Hayley Patterson” (played by PFC patron Julie Hesmondhalgh) has earned a special place in the hearts of 18 million viewers, as she acted out dramatised versions of the reality of being a trans woman as prime time TV drama. The TV “marriage” of Hayley and her soulmate Roy Cropper in Spring 1999 is even credited with provoking the announcement of the first ever Government Committee set up with 12 Departments to look at the issues faced by trans people at that time.

Historically our strategy for dealing with the media has always therefore been a mixed one. On the one hand we have needed to campaign in a relatively confrontational way at times, through lobbying and complaints, to curb negative and demeaning coverage based on ignorance and stereotypes. On the other hand we have always been willing to cooperate with journalists and programme makers to both improve their act, and to present a true image of what it is like to be a trans person. In both respects we have always sought to take our issues to the highest levels too — developing relationships with policy makers and influential figures within the industry to educate and work positively with them as partners in change.

Although the climate within the media has changed in the last few years, and the need for complaint is therefore diminishing, that three-sided aspect of our strategy remains much the same today. Only the balance has altered.

How we campaign in this area

As indicated above nowadays we work in this area by:

  • Maintaining good professional relationships with regulatory bodies such as the Press Complaints Commission and watchdog / advisory groups such as Mediawise. Rather than confrontation, our emphasis is always on building positively when bad things have happened.
  • Cultivating long term relationships with an increasing number of journalists and programme makers. Some of the journalists who learned about our issues in their earlier years are now graduating into editorial roles and we are nowadays able to give them privileged first refusal on stories which their rivals can only copy the next day
  • Using any means available to reach out to anyone who’ll listen — from trainee journalists to managing editors — offering eductation and the enormous knowledge we have in our field, to help them make good, well-researched, features and programmes.
  • Complaining responsibly and constructively on the increasingly rare occasions when offence is still unfortunately given.

Who is involved

  • Christine Burns is our leading campaigner in this field, working in the past for better regulation, leading the campaign’s response when it has been necessary to complain, and nowadays concentrating increasingly on change behind the scenes. Christine has a one-time background of once producing and presenting a BBC Radio Programme herself; she has often appeared on TV and Radio as a campaign spokesperson since coming out for the purpose in 1995. She has also liased extensively in the making of several media stories, has occasionally been commissioned to write articles herself, and has taken a lead in developing new media such as MP3 and video content for wider campaigning.
  • Several PFC activists have also carved valuable roles for themselves as media monitors and experts in the art of complaining, when necessary, to newspapers, programme makers and media regulators. Increasing numbers of trans people are also now becoming content makers in their own right. A recent short film about the ordinary healthcare experiences of trans people using the NHS is seen as very much the equal of the far more expensive productions made by professionals for the Department of Health.

How people can help

As all this implies, we still constantly need people who can keep an eye on all aspects of the media, alerting PFC of examples of good as well as bad practice. Some recent journalism has been excellent, for instance, and we like to be able to point to that as much as we need to be able to point out what’s bad. When it’s bad then we need people to complain in a reasonable and responsible way though. We never sink to the offender’s level, no matter how bad the incident.

Some trans people are journalists and programme makers themselves and they have a special role in working from the inside to educate and work for change among their colleagues and editorial masters.

Trans people can also sometimes have the opportunity to work with journalists and programme makers on particular projects — though we recommend that you ask us for advice if you are doing that for the first time as there are still unfortunately disreputable characters out there, who will promise one thing and deliver something different. (PS. PFC’s leading campaigners can speak from experience on this — so, if you do get caught out, take comfort from the fact that we all know how it feels).

[top]Good Practice Advice

  • Transsexual People and the Press - The dossier which successfully enabled us to campaign for the Press Complaints Commission to change its’ Editors’ Code of Practice in 2005. Also contains specific good practice recommendations alongside more than thirty personal accounts from trans people, describing their negative experiences of the media in the past.
  • The Associated Press Style Guide: US-centred guidance to print journalists, whose general principle we encourage all media to follow.
    “Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics (by hormone therapy, body modification, or surgery) of the opposite sex and present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.”
    Goldstein, Norm (2002) The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing. Page 231. “sex changes”
  • GLAAD Media Reference Guide - A US-centred glossary intended for media people to understand the terms they use
  • The Editors’ Code of Practice (PCC) - The Code of Practice to which all editors and management of newspapers and periodicals subscribe. This was amended in 2005 to stress the applicability of paragraph 12 for trans people. Anyone experiencing bad personal coverage should always check paragraphs 1,2,3 and 4 as well. If you experience doorstepping or unwanted harassment from journalists at any time, and they do not desist after you have indicated clearly that you wish them to stop and leave you alone, contact the PCC’s 24 Hour helpline for your region using the list at http://www.pcc.org.uk/contact/index.html. The PCC web site also gives instructions on how to complain - whether in writing, by email or by phone.

[top]Good Practice Examples

The following articles from the recent UK press provide examples of balanced and respectful coverage of trans people’s lives and issues

[top]Published Apologies

[top]Discriminatory Examples

[top]Regulation, Advice and Complaints

[top]Complaint Cases

[top]Newspapers and Periodicals

[top]Stage Productions

  • Beautiful Daughters - The documentary about how Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler came to work with and stage a trans women’s version of her famous production in Los Angeles in 2004, with the enthusiastic assistance of actress and campaigner Jane Fonda. The February 2004 production for “V Day” included an additional monologue, which Eve had added especially about trans women’s experience of their bodies.

[top]Film

[top]Television

  • Nadia’s Conundrum - Feature length discussion of the pressures and dilemmas facing Big Brother contestant Nadia Almada
  • Coronation Street - PFC Feature about the transsexual character in TV’s longest-running soap

[top]Radio

[top]Online and Digital Media

  • Gendertalk Radio - The world’s oldest regular radio and webcast, all about trans issues, by trans people.
  • Bistouri Oui Oui - Regular radio programme made by French trans people
  • PFC Audio and Video Section - PFC’s new section, introducing the voices and faces of trans people talking about campaign issues, trans history and showcasing other available A/V producers and content.
  • Moving onto the iGender - Christine Burns discusses the opportunities presented for trans people to reach out in new ways, through Podcasting and Blogging
  • Department of Health - 88 Kilograms
  • Know for Sure - A viral advertisement for Vauxhall cars. This advertisement is only available online, outside of the scope of conventional broadcasting and advertising regulation. The advertisement is quite funny and not especially offensive; indeed it can in some ways be regarded as affectionate humour, underlining a new degree of mainstreaming and acceptance of trans people — to the extent we can maybe afford to laugh with it. Nevertheless, the existence and easy propagation of advertisements in this new form of advertising medium create a new challenge for trans people to ensure their characterisation remains as innocuous as this.

[top]DVD Video and CD resources available offline

  • Christine Burns - 2004 A Year of Landmark Events for Trans People - DVD explaining the Gender Recognition Act with a particular emphasis for LGB audiences. Available in DVD and CD (Windows Media Video) formats.
  • Until Gender Do Us Part - Video documentary by Frazer Paddy about the issues faced by trans people who are already married and who face a terrible choice between their marriage and legal recognition. Available in CD (Windows Media Video) format.
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