Tips and tools for telling trans stories in 2024

TJA members offered key coverage tips in a webinar we co-hosted with the National Press Club Journalism Institute.

We're republishing key tips from the institute's event summary:

• If you are covering legislation, find out what instigated the legislation and who the lawmaker worked with to draft the bill. Who funded it? Include the voices of people who have been directly impacted by that legislative effort. Ask yourself: What question hasn’t been asked? What story is the media is missing on the topic?
• To find voices for your stories, look to social media groups and organizations that support trans and LGBTQ+ individuals. If you are looking to interview people under the age of 18, many news organizations will require you to get parental consent. Look for parents' groups that support trans and LGBTQ+ kids. 
• When you are sourcing trans and LGBTQ+ stories, explain your reporting process to help build trust. Give sources the room to not answer questions they aren’t comfortable with. Allow them to bring a parent, lawyer, or guardian to the interview if it makes them comfortable. Let them know the risks of facing harassment for talking with you. (Teen Vogue and ESPN have, depending on the situation, given sources a pseudonym or offered anonymity if the source’s safety might be at risk.)

Read more tips and watch the full webinar.

Tools for understanding misinformation

• Report Addresses Key Issues in Legal Battles over Gender-Affirming Health Care from Yale Law School [PDF report]
• LGBTQ+ Health Care Buzzwords from Southern Poverty Law Center
• Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience from Southern Poverty Law Center
• East Valley teen is the first Washington transgender athlete to win a state high school track championship. But controversy followed from The Spokesman-Review
• New Study Shows Stopping Medical Transition is Not the Same as Detransition from Assigned Media
• Opinion: More In-Depth Reporting on LGBTQ+ Issues is Critical to Curbing Misinformation and Harmful Rhetoric from Cincinnati CityBeat

This resource was originally published as part of a newsletter on July 8, 2024.