Today, GLAAD has denied a request for a press pass to the GLAAD Media Awards from The New York Post, after the newspaper refused to discuss its history of anti-transgender coverage with GLAAD and leaders from New York City's transgender community.
GLAAD was founded in 1985 to challenge The New York Post's blatantly anti-gay coverage of the HIV/AIDS crisis. More than 27 years later, the paper continues to defame the LGBT community with its sensational framing of transgender stories and its disgraceful practice of referring to transgender people with vulgar slurs.
Below are just a few of the paper's recent dehumanizing headlines and stories:
Bravest gets off easy on she-male beat
Beat-down tranny testifies in court
Fireman busted after violently 'beating' tranny pal
Fire kills tranny in dairy den
Page Six: War of H'wood she-men
The Post’s most recent coverage of court proceedings in an assault case brought by a transgender woman against her former boyfriend was particularly repugnant. GLAAD and transgender advocate Laverne Cox criticized several articles from the Post that trivialized the significance of the case, rather than taking the opportunity to highlight the serious problem of violence against transgender people, and especially trans women.
The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that 26% of transgender people have been physically assaulted at lease once in their life because of anti-trans hatred. The New York Post has not only done nothing to curb this hatred, its rampant anti-trans viewpoint could actually inflame it.
GLAAD has worked with newspapers like The New York Times to address its problematic coverage of transgender people by bringing together local transgender community members to discuss their concerns with journalists and staff members. We continue to call for the Post to follow in the Times' footsteps and to issue an apology for their past defamation.
"The Post has been digging its feet in the ground for too long on this issue," said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick. "Transgender people, particularly those who are victims of crime, deserve more than the vile slurs and underhanded 'jokes' with which the Post describes them. Until this paper changes its ways and apologizes for the damage done, GLAAD has no interest in supporting their work."