Journalist Evan Millward Photo: Provided

This story is featured in CityBeat’s May 29 print edition.

Pride Month is here again. But along with the parties and parades, there is rhetoric and misinformation about the LGBTQ+ community in increasing volume.

That means journalism — and the journalists writing this first draft of history — must evaluate systems and style when it comes to covering the LGBTQ+ community.

In my ten years in Cincinnati media, I’ve seen a lot of great growth. There’s still work to do.

June offers easy access to one example of how modern journalism can do better: profile and cover queer joy. Show queer people being just that — people: doing everyday things, in our everyday jobs, with our everyday families. It’s amazing how often our humanity gets lost.

Many of us have lost sight — or didn’t know — that Pride started with protest, born out of oppression and harassment. It was an uprising.

What’s old is new again.

News coverage of LGBTQ+ issues has been — and is still — playing catch-up. It is well documented that, largely, early coverage of the AIDS epidemic lacked accountability and was skewed or non-existent. It led to many misconceptions people still have today and arguably contributed to the slow, fatal national response. 

More recently, news outlets have struggled with transgender coverage — misgendering or deadnaming people continues. Trans voices often aren’t heard even when they’re the center of the storyline.

It should be acknowledged here that I’m a white, cisgender gay man. There’s a TON of privilege in that space.

Related

I reached out to a transgender journalist I’ve admired for her transparent transition, shared with viewers in Iowa. Nora J.S. Reichardt is now with a TV station and website in Illinois and graciously let me pick her brain and experience for this piece. Her notes are sprinkled throughout. 

The vague sense of animosity that many people sometimes feel towards trans people was often disarmed when people realized that I’m a real person, one of their neighbors, not some boogeyman that gets used to stir up discontent…This is why it’s so important to really work to include trans voices in stories not about our issues. We’re impacted by road construction, tax cuts, neighborhood initiatives and all the other sorts of things that news outlets cover every day, and we can talk about those things, too! These sorts of “minor” stories can also really help plant that seed that we’re totally normal people that our cis neighbors don’t need to have any fear of. – Nora J.S. Reichardt 

The rhetoric and the tenor from some of our lawmakers — and even our families — have been relentless, especially noticeable the past couple years. It feels increasingly hostile and often personal.

Many newsrooms aren’t blessed enough to have a dedicated statehouse reporter or bureau. It falls on local reporters and assignment editors to keep tabs on bills as they move through the legislative process, which can be confusing and slow (or sometimes sneakily quick).

But the follow-up is a public service. And our audiences demand it. I spent years preaching to new reporters that you win with the follow-up. Even if you didn’t break a story, you build reader loyalty by not missing an update. 

Reporters today have tighter deadlines than ever and are being asked to do more with less, more quickly. Shoot and edit a TV story, write a story for the website, make a reel or vertical video — in far less than the eight hour shift.

News is a team sport, and it takes the whole team to make sure LGBTQ+ coverage gets the full, fair story.

Newsrooms must bake diversity into their editorial DNA. As a newsroom, ask: ‘HOW are covering this story?’ and ‘WHO are we talking to for it?’

Lean on LGBTQ+ members of the newsroom who are willing to help. If there are none, that’s a deeper issue. In the Cincinnati market, every newsroom has at least one.

Some of the biggest issues I see in LGBTQ+ coverage continue to be in making sources and building the trust to include the voices of the people being impacted by legislation — going more than skin deep.

A drag ban on the table? Introduce me to a drag performer and show me why they spend the time and money on what is often a side job.

Proposals to limit gender-affirming care or to ban trans kids in sports? I want to know how many people this impacts and what the current protocol is for diagnosing and treating kids with gender dysphoria. In sports, let’s find out exactly how many trans kids in the area or state are actually playing. And, in a point I think gets overlooked, which gender they are. These bans seemingly only target trans girls.

While Ohio was considering restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans youth, the New York Times was running piece after piece on plagiarism allegations against Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay. On top of that, the stories that do end up being written are often severely lacking and tend to center a perceived medical debate over actual day-to-day lives of trans people ourselves. A recent GLAAD analysis found that approximately 66% of the paper’s news articles on trans issues didn’t include an interview with a trans person. This is a disservice to readers, especially coming from the outlet that’s supposed to be the nation’s paper of record. It’s also not without real-life consequences. NYT coverage has been cited in legal briefs defending bans on hormone replacement therapy. – Nora J.S. Reichardt

Words matter so much, and it is critical to take the patently wrong, politically charged language out of coverage. LGBTQ+ people are not “mentally ill,” or “groomers.” Hate speech has no place in legitimate journalism. There are ways to cover all sides without regurgitating rhetoric.

Newsrooms need to be up-to-date on the latest language around the LGBTQ+ community. The National Association of Lesbian and Gay Journalists (NLGJA) and the Trans Journalists Association have great stylebooks and resources for this.

Recently, I’ve seen more media companies launching LGBTQ+ employee resource groups (ERGs), which can also be resources when covering stories in this community. These groups also help create welcoming environments within which to work. Scripps Pride and Out@NBCUniversal are two really good examples.

Our role as journalists is to keep these stories in the spotlight, seek accountability and build understanding. By being out on TV and advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in everyday storytelling and special coverage focused on LGBTQ+ issues, I’ve been in a unique position to see the impact it makes. 

Take this note I got from a young viewer last year after I hosted a first-of-its-kind-in-the-region special on Pride and LGBTQ issues in 2021 in prime access: “I don’t know what I would have done if I had sat down to watch the evening news with my family as a kid and [saw] this.”

I’d like to see more resources and time dedicated to depth in covering the LGBTQ+ community locally — more than history depends on it.

This Pride Month, let’s make the commitment to further improving coverage of these issues in every month. The issues — and LGBTQ+ people — exist year-round.

Happy Pride!

Evan Millward spent the past 10 years as an anchor and reporter at WCPO 9 News. Prior to that, he was an anchor/reporter in Columbia, Missouri and wrote for newspapers in Dayton and Columbus. He is currently the president of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences – Ohio Valley board and was named Best Anchor in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists in 2022.

Related Stories

This article appears in May 29 – Jun 11, 2024.