TV coverage of anti-transgender violence dropped 20% in 2021 – the deadliest year on record for trans community

TV coverage of anti-trans violence in the United States dropped 20% last year, even though 2021 was the deadliest year on record for the nation’s transgender and gender non-conforming community.

A shocking new study published Tuesday by Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog nonprofit, found that segments on anti-trans violence on the major networks, both broadcast and cable, totaled 43 minutes in 2021 — down from 54 minutes of coverage the previous year.

The number is especially troubling taking into account that known cases of violence against members of the transgender community in the U.S. hit an all-time high in 2021: According to the Human Rights Campaign, last year marked the deadliest year on record for trans people in the United States, with at least 57 deaths — nearly all of them were Black and Latina trans women.

The previous record was registered in 2020, when at least 44 trans people were murdered in the country.

This year, at least 14 transgender people have already been killed in the U.S. The latest known victim is Nedra Sequence Moss, a 50-year-old Black trans woman whose body was found in a pool of blood at an intersection in Opa-locka, Fla., late last week.

The increase in violence against the community comes as transgender rights continue to be a driving force in a renewed culture war in the United States. There are more than 320 anti-LGBTQ bills currently under consideration in state legislatures across the country. Of those, at least 140 directly affect trans people, according to the HRC.

“More than five months into 2022, we have already seen a push from state legislatures to attack trans lives, while right-wing media outlets – like Fox News – have launched hateful attacks against the trans community,” Alex Paterson, LGBTQ program senior researcher at Media Matters, told the Daily News. “The lack of substantive reporting from national TV news about this violent epidemic further highlights the need for these networks to report accurate information and provide quality coverage instead of letting right-wing media control the narrative around trans identities,” he added.

MMFA researchers analyzed news shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, as well as top three cable news channels, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and found that they “failed to adequately report” on the topic last year, discussing it in only 19 segments overall.

The team searched for relevant terms — such as “transgender,” “nonbinary,” “violence,” “murder” — in transcripts for all original programming on the six networks from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2021. Segments analyzed had to have a “significant discussion of anti-trans violence.”