Tag Archives: new york times

New York Times Runs Factual Article About Transgender Issues

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Sylvia RiveraIt’s not just about Caitlyn Jenner.

The article and accompanying 11 minute video is an overview of the present day and a very brief history of transgender people since the Stonewall Era. What struck me most about it was the lack of hysteria and the (mostly) non-judgmental approach. Transgender women interviewed are not celebrities nor are they sexpot hyper-feminine stereotypes, nor are they “men in drag”.  They are much more ordinary, and in my opinion that’s what the public needs to see, that transgender people are human beings trying to live normal, ordinary lives.

The article and video covered some of the appalling violence transgender people experience, stories those of us reading this blog have heard before, but that get left out of the typical news story featuring people like Caitlyn Jenner or Chaz Bono. It mentions how transgender people were and continue to be the marginalized sub-group of the larger group of LGBT. The people in this article do not have happy Hollywood or Hallmark movie of the week endings that the mass media seems to be in love with, no, these are real lives with real suffering along with whatever good also occurs.

In other words, ordinary people trying to survive.

Link to article

Anti-Transgender Bias in a NY Times Article On Successful Women? Maybe.

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Martine Rothblatt
I was pointed to this article earlier today, where a blogger complains about the coverage the New York Times gave to one of the highest-paid CEOs in its review of the the Equilar Top 200 Highest Paid CEO Rankings. The coverage for transgender woman Martine Rothblatt, was as follows.

The highest-paid woman on the Equilar list was born a man.

Martine Rothblatt, born Martin Rothblatt, was the married father of four children and started Sirius Satellite Radio, now SiriusXM, before undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 1994. After one of her children was diagnosed with a disease, she founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and helped develop a drug to treat the illness. Last year, she was paid $38 million in compensation, most of it in stock options, putting her at No. 10 on the list. She declined to be interviewed.

“Her equity grant is awarded based on company performance, the best way to be aligned with the interests of shareholders,” said Andrew Fisher, deputy general counsel at the company. Its stock price more than doubled last year, largely because it received Food and Drug Administration approval for a new drug, Orenitram.

I noticed the same thing the DailyDot focused on – she was the ONLY person discussed where it is mentioned “she declined to be interviewed.” That phrase is usually a “trigger phrase” used by breathless news reporters who are chasing a scandal. However, I still am on the fence about whether or not it’s anti-transgender bias, or just a hamhanded way for a reporter to include a “personal note” connected to a CEO (even though that really shouldn’t be a personal note, in a perfect world.)