Trans people are being murdered in record numbers. The media is failing to report it

Even as the epidemic of anti-trans violence continues to surge across the U.S., the media is spending less and less time covering it. 

According to a new report from media-monitoring organization Media Matters for America (MMFA), national TV news networks spent a total of 43 minutes covering anti-trans violence last year—a 20 percent decrease in coverage from 2020. 

Of all the networks, MSNBC boasted the most coverage, with a total of 29 minutes across nine segments—over four times the coverage of CNN and Fox combined. CBS came in second, with a total of five minutes across two segments, and CNN was third, clocking in at a total of four minutes across three segments. Nearly a full third of all coverage aired during June 2021, which marked LGBTQ2S+ Pride Month. 

This news comes despite the fact that anti-trans violence increased significantly in 2021, hitting a new record of at least 57 reported killings of trans or gender nonconforming people. That figure rose from 44 in 2020, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and the increase made 2021 the most violent year on record since the HRC started tracking anti-trans homicide in 2013. The majority of victims were trans people of colour, particularly Black trans women.

This year, at least 12 trans or gender nonconforming people have been fatally shot or killed, as HRC reports. At this time last year, the national LGBTQ2S+ nonprofit had tracked over 25 deaths—meaning that this year could see an all-too-rare reduction in the number of homicides.

In the context of this wave of anti-trans violence, experts say the lack of mainstream media coverage is alarming, to say the least. 

“We’ve seen a ton of coverage in the news media about trans people, but we have not seen much coverage at all about the obstacles that trans people face,” Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at MMFA, tells Xtra. “It’s really dangerous to have those two things unconnected, especially when the right-wing media is so focused on fear-mongering about trans people and our lives.”

The problem is particularly glaring when examining broadcast TV news shows. According to MMFA, morning and evening shows spent just nine minutes covering violence against the trans community. The progressive watchdog’s reporting found that CBS spent the most time on anti-trans violence last year, clocking in at five minutes across two segments. ABC spent two minutes on just one segment, while NBC devoted two minutes across two segments. 

But while they may have spent more time covering anti-trans violence, the report suggests that cable news networks may also be fuelling it. For instance, Fox News spent just two minutes across two segments covering anti-trans violence last year, but aired 86 trans-themed segments in the first quarter of 2021 alone. The majority of these segments rely on “fear-mongering about trans athletes and lying about best-practise healthcare for trans youth,” as MMFA reports.

The right-leaning cable network has also come under fire from LGBTQ2S+ advocates for its hosts’ anti-trans rhetoric. Conservative political commentator and propagandist Tucker Carlson falsely claimed in March 2022 that trans people face lower rates of violence in the U.S. than the general population.

“We’re seeing a rash of right-wing media figures labelling trans people as a threat to children, and that’s really dangerous,” Drennen said, pointing to comments from both Carlson and House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. In a recent appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s show InfoWars, the QAnon congresswoman advocated physical violence against trans camp counsellors.

“We’ve already seen some incidents of violence of people attacking trans people, claiming that they’re grooming children—this is something that could really easily get out of hand,” Drennen added. “We’re in a really, really dangerous place, and the media needs to do a better job of covering us.”

Advocates also said the media’s failure to report accurately on trans lives is indicative of larger, troubling trends of institutional transphobia. For instance, just four out of the 19 segments mentioned the name of the trans person who was killed—reflecting the trend of law enforcement deadnaming and misgendering trans homicide victims following their deaths. This disrespectful misidentification directly contributes to the undercounting of incidents of anti-trans violence. 

As anti-trans hate continues to proliferate across far-right media channels, advocates stress the importance of trans people being allowed to tell their own stories. According to MMFA’s reporting, the vast majority of anti-trans violence coverage across both cable and broadcast networks in 2021 did not feature any trans guests—with just seven of the 19 total segments featuring a trans or gender nonconforming person. 

“We’ve seen years of the trans community being covered as kind of an exotic oddity, and that’s just not the world that we’re living in anymore,” Drennen said. “Trans people need to be in the news about trans people so that we can represent our lives for the three-dimensional things that they are, and not just something for cis people to gawk at.”