AZ: Local Publication Singles Out 11-year-old for Misgendering Coverage
An 11-year-old child, one of only two children in the state of Arizona impacted by an attempt to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports team, was called a boy in print by a local publication that serves her town.
by Evan Urquhart
Before the year is out, every single transgender girl who attempts to play sports with her friends will be the subject of national news coverage. That’s our prediction at Assigned Media, based on the high interest among the right in stories scapegoating transgender girls in sports combined with the very low number of actual trans girls attempting to play sports in schools.
One of only two transgender girls in Arizona seeking to play on a girls’ sports team may be getting her turn in the spotlight due to an openly biased article in the Chandler Arizonan about a court decision that has allowed the girls to compete pending a final decision in the case. The story describes the local student as a boy in the headline and a “biological male” in the first sentence of the piece. The trans girl in question is 11-years-old.
screenshot from the Chandler Arizonan
screenshot from the Chandler Arizonan
The choice to aggressively and repeatedly misgender the young trans student in her local news outlet, and by doing so seeming to side with legislators who seek to ban her from competing with other girls, is a somewhat mysterious one for journalist Howard Fischer, whose affiliation is listed as Capital Media Services. Fischer was also the author of an August 14th story for the Arizona Capital Times which details many of the same facts, but his writing for the Capital Times does not misgender the two students affected by a court order preventing the AZ legislatures ban on trans girls in girls’ sports from taking effect. Instead, it follows the language of the judge in the case.
screenshot from the Arizona Capital Times
Whatever the reason that Fischer chose to signal agreement with the ban and disagreement with the District Court judge who referred to the students as girls in her order, it seems deplorable that a child of 11 would be singled out in stigmatizing language in a local outlet that names her middle school and the specific team she’s participating in. This sort of wanton disregard for the safety of the children at the heart of this contentious issue should really be verboten in every reputable news outlet in the United States.