At the 36th GLAAD Media Awards, GLAAD honored journalists who cover LGBTQ people issues with nuance, empathy, and perspective. This year’s news awards feature LGBTQ people from the halls of Congress to every day leaders and changemakers.
PBS NewsHour won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Live TV Journalism Segment for their post-election interview with Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware. Rep. McBride is the first out transgender person elected to Congress, rising at a pivotal time for trans people, visibility, and equality. On PBS stations across the country that night and online, McBride was in everyone’s home and was quite possibly the first transgender person many viewers have had the chance to get to know.
The NewsHour’s segment with Rep. McBride was among the first to include the congresswoman after her win, highlighting not only the historic success of her campaign but also foreshadowing the challenges ahead for her and all LGBTQ people. Opening the NewsHour studio to an LGBTQ newsmaker helped ensure accurate representation after a destructive presidential campaign for transgender people.
“I have to ask you, Donald Trump and JD Vance made a part of their campaign message a lot of anti-trans rhetoric,” asked NewsHour host Amna Nawaz. “They spent millions on ads around these messages. A lot of your congressional colleagues-to-be echoed those messages and share those views. How do you work with them?”
“I’m used to working with people who not only disagree with me, but who disagree with me on some pretty fundamental issues to my own life,” responded Rep. McBride. “What I can tell you is that when I was campaigning in Delaware, I was not hearing about attacks on trans people, I was hearing about the cost of living and the need for affordable housing, childcare, and healthcare.”
GLAAD’s number one guidance to news media is to include transgender voices in stories about transgender people – an effort not taken in more than 60% of news stories covering Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender people. The NewsHour’s conversation included McBride as a trans leader in her own voice, and demonstrated additional values important to coverage about LGBTQ people and politics. Politics is about people. Journalism is about people. The best journalism seeks voices who are experts in the topics being explored, and elevates truths from their own lives and the community they come from. The most compelling stories shed light on humanity, which expands understanding of everyone’s basic human rights and need to be safe.
“The conversation centered on the values of fairness, accuracy, and empathy that drive our work,” NewsHour anchor Amna Nawaz added. “This recognition is a testament to the work done every day by Beth, Matt, Shrai, and so many others on the team.”
