The Trans Women's Anti-Violence Project

A wildly insensitive New York Times article on the life and death of trans artist and drag performer Lorena Escalera flared tensions between the [trans and] gender-variant community and the paper when it was published as part of the Sunday edition on May 14. The article, called “Woman Dies in a Brooklyn Fire That Is Deemed Suspicious,” served as a painful exemplar of the media’s salacious, oversexualized understanding of trans women of color, said Carmen Carrera, Escalera’s friend and fellow trans-identified drag performer. Carrera is most widely known for her performance on the third season of Logo reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“You know what it is? I knew Lorena from shows we did in the New York City scene,” said Carrera in an interview with me. “She was much more than what they were trying to portray her as. She was always happy, always having a good time. And she was definitely a big inspiration to me.”

Left to right: Raven, Lorena Escalera, Carmen Carrera

Escalera, whose success as a drag performer likely inspired many, was a direct influence on Ms. Carrera, who recently came out as transgender herself.

“When I read that article, I was like, ‘Wow, are you serious?’” she said. “They put her gender above everything else. My first thought was, ‘When I die, is that how it’ll be? Nothing’s going to matter besides my gender? Nothing I do for others, nothing else? What’s the point, then?’”

Carrera described her disgust with The New York Times’ depiction of Escalera as “curvaceous” and the fact that the writers of the article (Al Baker and Nate Schweber) depicted Escalera as a 25-year-old woman who “often drew admiring glances in the gritty Brooklyn neighborhood where she was known to invite men for visits to her apartment.”

“If she was a non-trans female that was killed, they wouldn’t have described her like that,” she said. “The article makes it OK to portray trans people like, ‘Oh, she was an escort. Oh, she was promiscuous.’  It’s just disrespectful and shows so much ignorance.”

Carrera, who recently made an appearance on the television show What Would You Do? as herself, said she lives as openly trans in order to combat such ignorance. In the episode of What Would You Do? Carrera plays a waitress confronting an angry longtime customer. The actor opposite Carrera is supposedly disgusted to find out that Carmen was once “Christopher” and used to identify as “he.” The show was meant to raise awareness of trans issues.

“Sometimes I feel so discouraged,” said Carrera. “Why do I feel like I can’t have any pride in myself? The only thing that really keeps me focused is just doing what I do, doing my shows, being a positive role model. That’s it.”

Carrera says she chooses to live with ”utmost fabulosity,” regardless of offensive comments and questions thrown in her direction.

“No matter what they tell you, being trans is definitely nothing to be ashamed of. It’s the coolest thing around,” she said. “Believe that.”

With a similar “utmost fabulosity,” Janet Mock, an editor at People.com, recently began a Twitter campaign called “#girlslikeus” for trans women and girls of color whose identities are so often negatively portrayed in the media and elsewhere.

“Where do we begin?” said Mock in an interview with me regarding the Times article. “It’s kind of like a double-edged sword. When [the media] finds out that someone is a trans person of color, they seem to either ignore the story or blow gross stereotypes of transgender women way out of proportion.”

Lorena Escalera

Mock made reference to the lack of coverage for CeCe McDonald and Paige Clay, two trans women of color whose stories of injustice received virtually no mainstream media attention. She said that following the NYT article, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) contacted her for a statement after seeing her outrage over Escalara’s story on Twitter. She gave them a statement, and GLAAD responded by amplifying the #girlslikeus campaign.

“I just felt bad for Lorena and the people who love her. It was a tough life to live, and she lived it gracefully and wonderfully,” said Mock. “We lost someone who was very loved. And in that article, they stripped away her dignity in such a way that it was extremely disheartening. So it tells me: You can go to the pinnacle of what our community says is success, be a role model like her, and still be beat down. It was extremely upsetting.”

Following a statement released by GLAAD, New York Times Metro Editor Carolyn Ryan issued a comment on behalf of the paper.

“We typically try to capture the personal stories of those whose lives are lost in a fire, and we sought to do so in this case,” wrote Ryan. “We certainly did not mean any disrespect to the victim or those who knew her. But, in retrospect, we should have shown more care in our choice of words.”

Janet Mock

“That’s where it scares me,” said Mock in response to the statement. She was frustrated not only with the Times’ use of words such as “curvaceous” but with parts of the article that objectified Escalera as a person only emulating a woman, someone who tricked men into sleeping with her. At one point, the Times quotes Oscar Hernandez, a mechanic familiar with Escalera.

“For a man, he was gorgeous,” Mr. Hernandez said in the article, which also quotes him as taking note of “Ms. Escalera’s flowing hair and ‘hourglass figure.’”

Is that type of reportage simply a misstep of word choice?

“It was just sloppy and arrogant,” she said. “The Times won’t even step up and say they were really wrong. It’s beyond a choice of words. To me, this incident shows that [we as a community] are not organized enough yet to fight back at something like The New York Times. We need to organize. We need to make sure our voices matter.”

In an attempt to provide this type of organized, vocal support for trans people in the press, a new grassroots group called the Trans/Gender Identity Media Advocacy (TIMA) organization is being formed on behalf of gender-variant people in the U.S. (full disclosure: I am an active member of the organization). TIMA aims to address egregious media portrayals such as Escalera’s and supports accurate representations of gender-variant people in the media within larger conversations on race, ableism, class, and other intersecting identities. The group is offering free media consultations for trans/gender-nonconforming people involved in potential press projects, people who are currently having difficulty with the press, and media members covering trans-related topics. To contact TIMA, visit their website here.

“We need more support. And we need more sensitivity from the media. See, the thing is this, I love myself,” said Carrera at the close of our interview. “I just wish people would accept me for how I accept myself. Accepting myself is hard enough. I can’t please everyone; I just wish people would have respect, especially for someone like Lorena.”

(Emerson Whitney, Huffington Post)

Lorena Escalera died in a fire at her apartment building in Brooklyn

Hundreds of people have signed a petition to the New York Times saying it ‘sexualised’ the death of a transgender woman in a report this weekend.

The petition, hosted on the Care2 petition website, said the report “sensationalised” the death of Lorena Escalera.

Ms Escalera, who was 25, was declared dead at the scene after an apartment building fire in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The New York Times ran a piece on her death which said in its opening sentence she was “curvaceous, and she often drew admiring glances in the gritty Brooklyn neighborhood where she was known to invite men for visits to her apartment”.

Ms Escalera’s body was discovered after a fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning last week.

The report said that in the area, “many recalled a young and friendly woman”. While the artcile itself used female pronouns throughout, one neighbour said “For a man, he was gorgeous” and recalled her “hourglass” figure.

The petition reads: “On May 12 the New York Times ran a piece about a suspicious fire in Brooklyn where trans woman of color Lorena Escalera sadly died. Far from focusing on the facts of the case, the report included sensationalistic and sexualizing descriptions of her as “curvacious” and noted her “hourglass figure.”

“GLAAD has brought this matter to the NYT’s attention already, whereby you called it a “poor choice of words” as though that ended the matter. At a time when anti-trans sentiment is high and sexualization of trans people still means they are denied basic civil rights, this is not good enough.

“We the undersigned ask that the NYT print an apology acknowledging why the story was so deeply offensive, and that it highlight the prejudice and discrimination trans people face in all spheres of life.”

Carolyn Ryan, the New York Times Metro Editor had said: “We typically try to capture the personal stories of those whose lives are lost in a fire, and we sought to do so in this case. We certainly did not mean any disrespect to the victim or those who knew her. But, in retrospect, we should have shown more care in our choice of words.”

GLAAD criticised the article this week: “The decision by writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber to call her “curvaceous” in the first sentence was not a poor choice of words. It was a poor choice of focus. […] Saying that Lorena was “called” Lorena, even though that is exactly how police identified her, was not a poor choice of words. It was a disrespectful jab at her identity as a trans woman, by implying that she wasn’t really Lorena.”

It added that it was clear that the kind of personal information mentioned in the article “was included in order to “spice up” the story by exploiting Lorena’s status as a transgender woman – not to actually inform readers about her life”.

Currently, [almost 1,000] people have signed the petition.

• Target: Carolyn Ryan, New York Times Metro Editor
• Sponsored by: Steve Williams, Care2 Causes Blogger

On May 12 the New York Times ran a piece about a suspicious fire in Brooklyn where trans woman of color Lorena Escalera sadly died. Far from focusing on the facts of the case, the report included sensationalistic and sexualizing descriptions of her as “curvacious” and noted her “hourglass figure.”

GLAAD has brought this matter to the NYT’s attention already, whereby an editor called it a “poor choice of words” as though this ended the matter. At a time when anti-trans sentiment is high and sexualization of trans people still means they are denied basic civil rights, this is not good enough.

We the undersigned ask the NYT to print an apology acknowledging why the story was so deeply offensive, and to highlight the prejudice and discrimination trans people face in all spheres of life.

In response to criticism from the LGBT community and allies over its coverage of a fire that killed a transgender woman this weekend, the New York Times released a statement that reveals a lack of understanding of how serious this problem is.

New York Times Metro Editor Carolyn Ryan stated: “We typically try to capture the personal stories of those whose lives are lost in a fire, and we sought to do so in this case. We certainly did not mean any disrespect to the victim or those who knew her. But, in retrospect, we should have shown more care in our choice of words.”

Unfortunately, the problem with the Times’ article on the death of Lorena Escalera, a transgender woman of color, is bigger than their “choice of words” or with their attempt to “capture” her story. It’s their failure to recognize trans women as women.  

The decision by writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber to call her “curvaceous” in the first sentence was not a poor choice of words. It was a poor choice of focus. The way this entire article is framed comes directly from an idea that transgender women are curiosities. That they’re other. That they should be treated differently than other people.  Saying that Lorena was “called” Lorena, even though that is exactly how police identified her, was not a poor choice of words. It was a disrespectful jab at her identity as a trans woman, by implying that she wasn’t really Lorena.

Lorena was a daughter. She was a friend. She was a beloved member of a community. But the only elements of her story that writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber seemed concerned with were; what she looked like, what her neighbors thought she looked like, and whether any items that would typically belong to a woman were in her apartment when it burned. Very little of this is relevant to the actual personal story of Lorena Escalera’s life. It seems very clear that this personal information was included in order to “spice up” the story by exploiting Lorena’s status as a transgender woman – not to actually inform readers about her life.

“As my city’s and our nation’s paper of record, I would expect the New York Times to treat any subject, regardless of their path in life, with dignity,” said trans advocate and journalist Janet Mock. “In Lorena Escalera’s life she was so much more than the demeaning, sexist portrait they painted of girls like us. It goes beyond a ‘choice of words.’ According to the Times’ limiting, harmful portrait of Lorena, she was nothing more than a ‘curvaceous’ bombshell for men to gawk at. That is not the ‘personal’ story of any woman, and until we treat trans women like human beings - in life and death - with dignity, families and struggles, our society will never see us beyond pariahs in our communities.

Unfortunately, many Americans, including members of the media, do view transgender people – and trans women of color in particular – as curiosities at best, or not deserving of basic human dignity at worst. And very few Americans know any trans people in their day-to-day lives, so this viewpoint is never dispelled.  This is why extra care must be taken when reporting on a story that involves a transgender person, especially if that person is no longer able to speak for themselves, as is the case here. Writers and editors alike must be made aware of how common this underlying bias is, and make a conscious effort to remove it when they see it.

This is where the Times’ statement truly fails. Not only does it not show an understanding of what the problem with the original article was, it also makes no assurances to the community that it will educate its writers and editors about how to report on transgender people in the future. There’s nothing forward-looking in the Times statement.

GLAAD did ask the Times to detail what steps will be taken in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen again. We were told that this statement “will be all there is from us on this.”

But this statement is not good enough.  The New York Times has highlighted the personal and inspiring stories of transgender people in the recent past, including an article on Harmony Santana, Laverne Cox and other transgender actresses, a piece on triathlete Chris Mosier and one on classical pianist Sara Davis Buechner. We can be almost certain that the New York Times does understand the problems with its piece on Lorena, and is embarrassed that it ran. Now it’s time for them to say so publicly, and to tell its readers that steps are being taken to ensure that an article like this won’t be printed again.  We thank members of the LGBT community, including trans leaders like Janet Mock, Autumn Sandeen, Laverne Cox, and Jennifer Finney Boylan, trans author and New York Times contributing writer, as well as Colorlines and Feministing, for bringing attention to this story. We hope to continue putting pressure on the Times until they offer assurances that changes will be made.

UPDATE: GLAAD said that when they reached out to the New York Times, they were given the statement below and told, this “will be all there is from us on this.”

New York Times Metro Editor Carolyn Ryan stated: “We typically try to capture the personal stories of those whose lives are lost in a fire, and we sought to do so in this case. We certainly did not mean any disrespect to the victim or those who knew her. But, in retrospect, we should have shown more care in our choice of words.”

GLAAD isn’t satisfied, however, saying the Times’ response “reveals a lack of understanding of how serious this problem is.”

“Unfortunately, the problem with the Times’ article on the death of Lorena Escalera, a transgender woman of color, is bigger than their “choice of words” or with their attempt to “capture” her story,” wrote GLAAD today. “It’s their failure to recognize trans-women as women.”



The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation eviscerated a New York Times article today about a transgender woman who died in a fire.

Lorena Escalera, 25, died Saturday in an early-morning fire in Bushwick.  She was reportedly a dancer with the stage name “Lorena Xtravaganza” and performed in city clubs.

The group slams the newspaper for including details like Escalera being “curvaceous” and “known to invite men for visits to her apartment,” which were both mentioned in the first sentence of the article.

The article also mentions that she was “called Lorena,” later mentioning that the police reported her name as Lorena Escalera.

The group asks if she were not transgender, whether such details – including “wigs, women’s shoes … makeup, hair spray, handbags” found in debris outside the apartment – would be included:

Would the New York Times ever describe a woman who is not transgender, who had died in a fire, as “curvaceous” - in the first sentence, no less? Would it carefully note that her apartment contained makeup and “women’s shoes?” Would it say that she was “called” whatever her name was - especially if police later identified her by that name?

The group said many people complained to them about the article.

Colorlines.com also wrote about the story, with the headline, “Transgender Woman Dies in Fire, So Of Course the News Is About Wild Sex.”

This week, the New York Times covered the death of a Lorena Escalera, a Brooklyn woman who perished in a suspicious fire. They could have opened with a colorful description of her career in the ballroom scene—Escalera was a member of the House of Xtravaganza. Or they could have focused on the poor electrical circuitry in her apartment—a probable cause of the fire and symptomatic of lower-income housing. Instead, Al Baker and Nate Schweber opened with neighborhood gossip and physical descriptions…

Several years into my transtion about a decade ago, I thought seriously about killing myself. Life was really hard. I wasn’t passing as my true female self very well. I often was called a man as I walked down the street. I didn’t think I would ever be accepted as the woman I always knew I was, and I wanted to end it. In the note I was going to write to accompany my death, I was going to have explicit instructions about the pronouns that should be used to refer to me in death. I was going to write that I shouldn’t be referred to by the name on my birth certificate but by the name that reflects my female identity — that is, my legal name, the name I took after I dropped my old first name. (“Laverne” was my middle name, and “Cox” was my last name at birth.) I basically didn’t want to be disrespected and misgendered in my death, as all too often happens to transgender folks in news reports on our deaths.

I was reminded of that this weekend when I read the unfortunate New York Times article about the death of Lorena Escalera, a woman who died in a Brooklyn fire. The reporters were careful to use the correct pronouns when referring to Escalera but were sure to quote someone who did not use the correct pronoun to refer to her: “”For a man, he was gorgeous,’ Mr. Hernandez said, noting Ms. Escalera’s flowing hair and ‘hourglass figure.’” This is just one of many passages in the article that sexualize and objectify her. Autumn Sandeen calls attention to this in her piece on Pam’s House Blend.

In a speech I made in Albany last week, I talked about violence against transgender women of color and how our lives are not valued. This Times article is a great example of that. I didn’t personally know Lorena, but we were Facebook friends. After reading about her death, I went to her Facebook page and saw all the messages from friends of Lorena’s, friends who were devastated by the news of her death, friends who talked about her beautiful spirit and how many lives she touched. Lorena’s life mattered. Transgender lives matter.

In a HuffPost blog I wrote last month, I noted how a news outlet reporting on the brutal murder of trans woman Coko Williams showed a photo of trash to accompany the story. The Times article follows this sad paradigm: It reads, “A debris pile outside the apartment, which is above a funeral home, contained many colorful items. Among them were wigs, women’s shoes, coins from around the world, makeup, hair spray, handbags, a shopping bag from Spandex House, a red feather boa and a pamphlet on how to quit smoking.”

Reporting on trash in articles about the deaths of transgender women enrages me in ways I can’t even explain. When I wanted to kill myself, I felt so utterly dehumanized and demoralized by living in a world that was not having me. I have struggled and continue to struggle to not only have dignity and to carve out a place in the world for myself but to treat myself as if my life matters. My life matters. Transgender lives matter. Lorena Escalera’s life mattered. Rest in peace, Lorena.

Lorena Escalera’s life as a performer and model was cut short, and the Times decided to mark that by sensationalising and exploiting her death.

…

It’s rare to see a trans woman at all, let alone a trans woman of colour, featured in the media for something other than something terrible that happened to her, like her death or imprisonment. When trans women are in the media, usually the coverage discusses, at length, whether they are or were “convincing enough” and the details of potential surgeries or lack thereof are subjects of gleeful supposition.

[Full Article]

Family, friends and the House of Xtravaganza mourn the loss of Lorena Escalera with vigil outside her home.

A twenty-five year old woman was found dead in a four-story Brooklyn apartment building that caught on fire early Saturday morning. Police identified the victim as Lorena Escalera.

The New York Times on the other hand identified the woman that died in the fire as “curvaceous,” someone who “drew admiring glances” in her “gritty Brooklyn neighborhood,” and noted she was known to invite men for visits to her apartment.

Just to make sure we’re all on the same a page, a woman was found dead and the first sentence in the New York Times story about the incident was: “She was 25 and curvaceous, and she often drew admiring glances in the gritty Brooklyn neighborhood where she was known to invite men for visits to her apartment, her neighbors and the authorities said.”

The two Times writers Al Baker and Nate Schweber said Escalera was “called Lorena,” as opposed to saying she was “named Lorena” or that she simply was Lorena.

The story that should have been about an apartment fire or even a suspicious fire instead turned in to the reporters interviewing neighbors about who Escalera was supposedly sleeping with and how she dressed.

Below is an excerpt from Baker and Schweber’s story published in the Times on Saturday:

Oscar Hernandez, 30, a mechanic, said she had had some of her ribs removed in an effort to slim her waist.

“For a man, he was gorgeous,” Mr. Hernandez said, noting Ms. Escalera’s flowing hair and “hourglass figure.”

Gary Hernandez, 25, a neighbor, said that Ms. Escalera had worked as an escort and that he regularly saw her advertising her service on an adult Web site.

“She was always on her laptop posting ads about herself,” said Mr. Hernandez (who is not related to Oscar Hernandez). “Still, she was a nice person.”

A debris pile outside the apartment, which is above a funeral home, contained many colorful items. Among them were wigs, women’s shoes, coins from around the world, makeup, hair spray, handbags, a shopping bag from Spandex House, a red feather boa and a pamphlet on how to quit smoking.

Aaron McQuade, GLAAD’s Director of News and Field Media questions how the Times would have covered the story if the word “transgender” was out of the equation:

Would the New York Times ever describe a woman who is not transgender, who had died in a fire, as “curvaceous” - in the first sentence, no less? Would it carefully note that her apartment contained makeup and “women’s shoes?” Would it say that she was “called” whatever her name was - especially if police later identified her by that name?

McQuade noted on GLAAD’s blog his organization has reached out the Times to ensure that “exploitative pieces like this” aren’t printed in the future.

transradical:

By now you’ve probably heard the story of trans woman and ballroom performer Lorena Escalera who was recently killed in an apartment fire labeled “suspicious” by police.

That the mainstream media would engage in transphobic language and slut-shaming accusations against Escalera should be a surprise to no one. That these attacks are coming from no lower source than the New York Times should surprise no one either. The paper routinely uses exploitative, demeaning and insulting language when discussing queer or otherwise marginalized people, and its slut-shaming of an 11-year-old girl who was gang raped in Texas last year makes their editorial decision to focus coverage on attacking Escalera’s character merely par for the course.

The thankfully-dying rag, which vulturously exploits the struggles of disenfranchised and oppressed peoples while simultaneously boasting about its supposed status as the paragon of journalistic excellence, has long be a target of my hatred and scorn. Whatever laudable attributes the paper may have had in the the past, it has long served far better as kindling than as a legitimate source of information.

Feministing sums up their latest affront to journalism better than I ever could:

Lorena Escalera was a person. She was a performer in the ball scene. She died in a suspicious fire on Saturday. And she sure as hell does not deserve the treatment she’s getting from the New York Times. This is how the paper’s article about her death opens:

She was 25 and curvaceous, and she often drew admiring glances in the gritty Brooklyn neighborhood where she was known to invite men for visits to her apartment, her neighbors and the authorities said.

Called Lorena, she brought two men to her apartment, at 43 Furman Avenue in Bushwick, either late Friday night or in the early hours of Saturday, the police said.

A few paragraphs later, the article oh so cleverly reveals that Lorena was trans, or as the paper says, “she was born male.” The article relies on accounts from Lorena’s neighbors to paint a picture of her. Mostly, the account comes from two men, one of whom says he knew she did sex work because he saw her computer. The other guy is quoted as saying, “For a man, he was gorgeous. Hourglass figure.” Because apparently those words really deserved to see print.

I’m flashing back to the New York Times‘ coverage of the gang rape in Cleveland, TX, when the paper interviewed neighbors to paint a picture of an 11-year old girl as a slut who was asking for it. Specific stereotypes about trans women are being deployed in this article, like that we’re deceptive (it’s not that she was Lorena, it’s that she was called Lorena). But focusing on her appearance and bringing up sex work is the same old shit we always hear about how slutty women bring violence upon themselves. We don’t yet know the details of what happened to Lorena, if it was even a murder, and already the Times is blaming the victim.

Just like rape is rape, murder is murder. And victim blaming is still bullshit.

I wrote a lot of posts about horrible news coverage of violence against trans folks when I first joined this site. I’ve had to write less of these posts as the media has started to finally catch on to the fact that it’s still their job to report responsibly and professionally when the victim is trans. It is completely unacceptable this is still happening in the pages of the New York Times, especially after they were taken to task so publicly for victim blaming recently.

Other folks, including GLAAD, Janet Mock, and Autumn Sandeen are calling out this incredibly offensive and dangerous article as well. You can let the New York Times know you’re sick and tired of their victim blaming and transphobia by writing to them here or tweeting @NYTimes.

I urge you to contact the New York Times and let your opinion of their “journalism” be known.

Lorena Escalera (Photo – MarcoOrvando.com)

THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — A passerby saw the flames and banged on doors and everyone in the building got out except Lorena Escalera who was found her bed by firefighters using thermal imaging. She was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.

Escalera, who worked as an escort, had two men in her apartment earlier. They have not been found as of this writing however, according to witnesses, the passerby said he saw two men in front of the building arguing when he saw the flame.

Fire marshals are investigating and authorities have deemed the blaze suspicious but have no evidence yet that indicates the blaze was deliberate.

Police say Escalera was a member of House of Xtravaganza — a well-known troupe of  trans performers. Other sources say say her stage name was Lorena Xtravaganza.

More:  Woman in Group of Transgender Performers Dies in Brooklyn Fire – NYTimes.com.

Lorena Escalera (Photo – MarcoOrvando.com)