The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), GLAAD
and The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland have criticized
the Cleveland Plain Dealer's coverage of the murder of a
transgender woman.
On April 17, the body of Cemia Acoff
was found in Olmsted Township, a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
Acoff was a 20-year-old transgender African-American woman. Acoff,
who had been reported missing March 27, was stabbed repeatedly and
dumped into a pond.
The Center charged in an email to
supporters that reporters had “managed to strip away [Acoff's]
human dignity even in death.”
“[R]emember that behind every death
reported in sensationalist journalism, there is a human being with
family, friends and a life story,” wrote Phyllis Harris, executive
director of the Center.
The groups labeled 2 headlines “highly
problematic”: “Brutal Slaying Marks The End Of Cleveland Man's
Fight For Acceptance” and “Oddly Dressed Man Found In
Olmsted Township Pond Identified.”
Both titles have been since been
altered, and the Plain Dealer added the following explanation:
“This story has been edited since originally posted to bring it
within the style recommended by the Associated Press involving
transgender people.”
In
a blog post, GLAAD wrote that “describing Acoff as 'oddly
dressed' is incredibly insulting” and “Her murder did not 'end
her fight for acceptance,' it ended her life. Period.”
“And removing pronouns doesn't fix
much,” GLAAD added. “Yes, the stories are no longer factually
incorrect, but this tact still shows an unwillingness to respect the
victim's gender identity and accept her as female.”
HRC
added in a blog post: “We call on Ohio's largest newspaper to
do right by the entire LGBT community and apologize for its
inexcusable coverage of a tragic murder.”