Transphobia in the Media

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Conference
2014 National LGBT Conference
Date
21 July 2014
Decision
Carried as Amended

Conference congratulates Conchita Wurst on her Eurovision win and applauds her work in bringing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) issues to an international stage.

Conchita Wurst is the drag alter ego of Tom Neuwirth who created the character to “call for tolerance for everything that is different.”

It was fantastic to see a non-conformist gender-queer artist take the stage and win such a popular contest, especially considering recent erosions of LGBTQ rights within Europe and the wider international community. The elation of the inclusive attitude of Eurovision voters was badly tainted by the openly transphobic language used both in the mainstream media and social media sites. Described as a ‘pervert’, ‘bearded lady’ and even ‘unnatural’ by one of the fellow contestants, the all too usual use of transphobic language was prevalent in even the most inclusive news reports.

Conference calls on the national LGBT committee to continue to voice their condemnation of negative language towards LGBTQ people in national media whenever this arises and to work with journalism unions to ensure LGBTQ people are not demonised in the media.