LIVING WITH PRIDE
This fall, on both coasts, three transgender teenagers have been brutally murdered. According to staff with the Gender Education and Advocacy's Remembering Our Dead Project, the U.S. is averaging more than two trans murders every month. Not only is this the highest rate ever, but it also reflects only those crimes in which the victim was identified as transgender.

I am writing at the request of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (www.nyacyouth.org),because it is important that our community understand what it means to live as a transgender person; and to begin to break down the dangerous stereotypes, misinformation, and assumptions that allow harassment, intimidation and violence to occur. I hope you will consider more stories about transgender youth in particular, many of whom suffer everyday because they express their gender in ways which may not fit into society's gender norms. For example, I'm talking about a young woman who is harassed and then assaulted for acting too masculine; or a young boy who is constantly getting beaten up because he doesn't like sports, or is acting "gay."

The tragedies in San Francisco and in our nation's capital, and the senseless violence that occurs all across the U.S. everyday, must serve as a wake-up call for all of us. As a member of the media with the power to influence our community's sense of right and wrong, I hope you will seek to educate yourself on these issues and then use your voice to help our community stand up for the rights of all people to live their lives with pride in who they are.

Crystal Middlestadt
Eugene

P.S. In some of the stories I've seen about trans people, reporters failed to identify trans people by their chosen names or with pronouns which reflect their trans identity. The AP Style Guide, the accepted standard in news reporting, suggests that people be identified by pronouns "consistent with the way the individuals live publicly." I hope whenever you are reporting on trans people, you will respect this standard, and more importantly, the lives of the trans people you are covering.