A Newsletter for Assigned Media
This is the first weekly newsletter for Trans Spyglass Assigned, and I’m writing it before the site is public or, indeed, finished. If you become a member, you’ll find this content as a weekly email in your inbox. But since we have no members yet, or even a finished website, that’s impossible in this case.
We had a great first week! (FYI I’m using the journalistic we here, it’s all just me. If you don’t know, I’m Evan Urquhart, journalist and trans guy.) I made a twitter account @assignedmedia, and wrote some starter posts to seed the website with some content when we go public. I’m so excited to start this thing, and bring my own coverage to an area I feel the mainstream media is neglecting.
That is, in a nutshell, what we’re all about. The right wing in the US is obsessed with trans people. They post multiple pieces of inflammatory, misleading, often outright false anti-trans propaganda daily, which in turn influences Republican politicians to make similarly inflammatory and biased statements, and to propose harmful legislation that threatens our lives. But the US media is, at best, neglecting the story of a vulnerable minority unfairly targeted by far right extremism that seeks to drive us out of public life. At worst, mainstream outlets are publishing tamed down versions of the same propaganda, giving a respectable veneer to efforts that aim, quite openly, for our extermination. And so it falls to trans people to cover this ongoing story, which analysts expect will only grow more relevant as we approach the midterm elections and, in 2 years, the next presidential race. Assigned aims to be with you, through all of that.
I’m just one person, but there are many other trans journalists, as well as activists, and ordinary folks, who are pushing back against the right wing anti-trans efforts. Part of what I’d like to do with this newsletter is to share some of the good work being done by our community, in journalism and beyond. I’ll also give you the digest version of the work I’ve done at Assigned in the past week, because I know that not everyone will have the time to check our coverage daily.
However, because trans people are so much more likely than cisgender folks to be unemployed, homeless, and/or living in poverty, I didn’t want to lock this content entirely behind a paying membership. That’s why the newsletters will also be posted here, on this, well, somewhat deliberately uglier page of the website.
So that’s the deal. You can get this for free here, but please do support us with a membership if you are able. I don’t have a ton of income, and the project will likely require a geat deal of labor. If you think it’s work worth doing, I’m asking for you to help keep me going through the turbulent times to come.
