BY VICTOR HOFF
Last night, approximately 30 people attended a seminar sponsored by the San Diego Press Club entitled ‘Reporting on LGBT Issues.’ The event, which was held at KGTV Channel 10, was moderated by award-winning journalist and former San Diego LGBT Weekly editor Thom Senzee and included a diverse array of panelists from San Diego.
The panel consisted of Monica Trasandes, the director of Spanish-Language Media at GLAAD; Stampp Corbin, a nationally recognized LGBT activist, former co-chair of the 2008 Obama for America presidential campaign’s National LGBT Leadership Council, member of the Board of Directors for the Human Rights Campaign and publisher of San Diego LGBT Weekly and LGBTweekly.com; Will Walters, a civil rights activist who was arrested in 2011 at the San Diego LGBT Pride festival for what many have argued was selective enforcement of San Diego’s public nudity laws and Connor Maddocks, program coordinator for the newly launched Project Trans at The San Diego LGBT Center and a community activist for many years.
The evening was broken up into three sections. Each spokesperson gave opening remarks, followed by a Q&A between Senzee and the panelists, which addressed a topic of importance to both those in the LGBT community and those that cover them. At the end of the session, which ran about twenty minutes over the advertised conclusion of 8 p.m., the moderator opened up the floor to questions.
As Senzee noted early on, the panel, presented as it was in the shadow of two historic Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and Prop. 8 couldn’t have been timelier. “The Supreme Court may have punted its decision until next week on Prop. 8 and DOMA but today is still historic because this marks the first time the San Diego Press Club has presented a discussion panel aimed at addressing the special challenges journalists face when they seek to cover the LGBT community with sensitivity, dignity and respect.”
Corbin fielded the first of the evening’s questions: “Does the term ‘gay’ just apply to gay men or does it apply to lesbians, too?” He was quick to note that ‘LGBT’ is “the law of the land” (largely due to the fact, he argued, that it stems from the White House in much the same way that ‘black’ supplanted ‘negro’ once the White House put its imprimatur on that era’s lexicon.) But he also pointed out, rightly, that “we don’t call people what they want to be called.” As an example, Corbin observed with some irritation that the media continues to refer to same-sex marriage as ‘gay’ marriage.
“How can a journalist properly attribute a gender to a source or a subject for which the subject is transgender?” was next on deck for Maddocks who, in his opening remarks, spoke ingenuously about a life filled with mockery and ostracization. “It’s a matter of just asking someone,” he answered. “Are we just afraid to ask the trans person,” Senzee proposed. “You are allowed to ask,” responded Maddocks. “We’ve been asked so many times. [And] I can tell within the first few seconds. I can see the wheels turning. Is that a girl? A guy? How do I identify them?” His advice? “Get it off the table immediately.” (As a caveat, Thom reminded the audience that “’Tranny’ is not OK and it’s probably the last time you’ll hear it from my mouth.”)
Next, Senzee turned to Monica Trasandes, who began the evening by presenting a short video on the history of and work being done by GLAAD, and asked her about reparative therapy, the practice of using psychology – some would argue pseudo-psychology – to assist individuals in converting from heterosexuality to homosexuality. “Is it incumbent upon editors to put quote marks around or modifiers such as ‘so-called’ before the term ‘reparative therapy?’”Trasandes, who brings with her a distinctly Latin perspective – she was born in Uruguay and is actively engaged at GLAAD in monitoring reporting coming out of Latin and Central America as well as Mexico – didn’t pause. “I think so. I think you have to look at what the scientific bodies have said about it. So what we try to do when we’re considering a story about this is say: Look at what the AMA (American Medical Association) has said, look at what the APA (American Psychological Association) has said. They have all said that a) these therapies don’t work b)your orientation is your orientation and you shouldn’t try to change it c) they’re harmful to people’s health because they get more depressed than ever because they are promised they are going to change their orientation and they can’t.”
Walters said he does not believe journalists necessarily have an obligation to out closeted politicians who do harm to the LGBT-equality cause. He then went on to provide a moving and tearful account of his arrest during Pride wearing what many said was no more revealing than a two-piece bikini.
According to Senzee, the evening was videotaped and a copy of the night’s Q&A will make its way to City TV San Diego, the city’s municipal government access channel.
