The Power of Positive Media Representation for Trans Youth
It’s been 52 years since the Stonewall Uprising snatched the media’s attention and thrust the gay rights movement into the public eye, allowing millions of people to witness the injustices experienced by the LGBTQ+ community on a daily basis. Thanks to the diligent work of activists over the decades, depictions of gays and lesbians in the media became more positive, leading the culture to shift favorably towards gay rights — anti-discrimination laws have been passed to protect LGBTQ+ people, who can now serve openly in the military without punishment and whose right to marriage equality is now federally protected under the law. Considering the progressive strides made in recent years, it’s all too easy to accept the status quo, to forget how society became as accepting of the LGBTQ+ community as it is today, and to ignore the continued legislative backlash currently targeting transgender youth. Without persistent awareness and continued activism, however, progress will halt or even reverse course.
Before the gay rights movement making its foothold in pop culture, the public perception of the gay lifestyle was widely one of fear and ignorance. If homosexuality was mentioned in the media at all it was painted as sick or perverted, a deviant way of life led by villainous criminals or the pitifully weak, both deserving of terrible fates. Think of the cross-dressing serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) or The Children’s Hour (1961), a story centered around two school teachers who are accused of lesbianism that ends with one of them committing suicide because she is so appalled by her homosexual longings. These damaging stereotypes persisted throughout most of film and media until GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) was formed by a group of journalists and writers in 1985. GLAAD started as a response to defamatory news coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis that disproportionately affected the gay community. What began as a protest outside of The New York Post’s office building grew into a national effort to reshape the media’s derogatory narrative on homosexuality.
Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn in The Children’s Hour (1961) - ALAMY
By 1990, as GLAAD grew in size and influence, the organization began hosting its own media awards ceremony honoring fair and inclusive representations of LBGTQ+ issues. They launched several successful ad campaigns casting gay people in a better light and convinced industry giants to change editorial policy to use more appropriate and respectful terms in their media coverage. GLAAD was becoming a media watchdog that fought defamation while simultaneously advocating for visibility. From the late 1990s through the 2000s, shows like Ellen, Will & Grace, and Modern Family— accompanied by other popular programs that prominently featured dynamic gay characters— helped normalize same-sex couples in the mind of the average American viewer who otherwise didn’t know any “out” LGBTQ+ people. Human beings are typically compelled by good storytelling and are more likely to show compassion towards gay issues if they feel a bond with a gay person, or even a gay character. A 2017 study at Pepperdine University “Changing Media and Changing Minds: Media Exposure and Viewer Attitudes Towards Homosexuality” found that, “people with more exposure to media with more positive representations of homosexual people and the issue of homosexuality will have higher acceptability for the issue and willingness to learn more about the issue.”
In today’s world, with wireless internet and countless media sources, the LGBTQ+ community is more positively viewed by the public than ever before, and yet transgendered people, particularly black trans women, are murdered at disproportionately higher rates. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports, “Sadly, 2020 has already seen at least 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means, the majority of which were Black and Latinx transgender women. We say at least because too often these stories go unreported -- or misreported.” Alongside increased violence against trans people, HRC published an article on anti-LGBTQ bills currently sweeping through local and state legislature entitled, “2021 Officially Becomes Worst Year in Recent History for LGBTQ State Legislative Attacks as Unprecedented Number of States Enact Record-Shattering Number of Anti-LGBTQ Measures Into Law.” Most of the proposed bills target trans youth, aiming to restrict their ability to participate in sports or receive gender-affirming health care. In April of 2021, Arkansas passed HB1570, making it illegal for healthcare practitioners to provide puberty blockers or hormone therapy for transgender minors, prohibiting them from transitioning. According to The Advocate, the new law has sparked a rash of suicide attempts among trans youth, an at-risk group that already has statistically higher rates of suicide. How the media represents transgender people matters now more than ever before, but when it comes to accurate or positive trans visibility in the mainstream, the media still has work to do.
Cast of Pose clockwise from top: Angelica Ross, MJ Rodriguez, Hailie Sahar, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore Photo credit: Bethany Wade
GLAAD published findings from a recent Pew Poll estimating, “nearly 90% of Americans say they personally know someone who is lesbian, gay, or bisexual. However, multiple polls show that approximately 20% of Americans say they personally know someone who is transgender. Given this reality, most Americans learn about transgender people through the media.” The problem lies in the continued use of defamatory stereotypes for trans characters, if they are present at all, and the casting of cisgendered actors to play trans roles. In Disclosure, a documentary about trans representation in the media available on Netflix, the various transgender tropes are broken down to reveal not only the harmful effects they have on public perception of the transgender community, but also the negative impact they have on trans people’s perceptions of themselves. More often than not, trans people are still cast as either victims or villains who are disposable one-dimensional characters, and their gender is often used as a plot twist or the butt of a joke. Even an exceptional performance of a cisgender actor playing a trans role sends the wrong message to audiences, a message that in some way trans people are just pretending. There is a dire need for stories inclusive of the trans perspective without trans identity at the center, stories that show trans characters thriving and not at odds with themselves or society. If most Americans derive their understanding of transgender people through the media, the media must give them trans characters they can identify with— and root for. In recent years, breakthrough shows like Transparent, which featured many trans actors, and Pose, the first show to star mostly trans women of color, proved there is an appetite for more nuanced and positive portrayals of trans life. A more fair and accurate representation of transgender people is not only more entertaining, but it also endears the audience to trans characters and informs them of trans issues.
The entertainment and news media play an important role in shaping society’s viewpoint on the LGBTQ+ community, but in truth, it is up to all of us to analyze the content we consume and do our part to unlearn our socialized prejudices. Even as anti-LGBTQ bills pass through state legislatures, the public outcry against such discrimination offers hope to trans youth currently living in states like Arkansas that people do care about them. Their lives, and the telling of their stories, can help stir compassion in and win hearts. They can help change minds.
