Tell Fox News To Stop Perpetuating Myths About Transgender People

Please contact Fox News Channel and voice your concerns about the station’s history of verbal attacks on LGBT people including this latest incident of defaming transgender people.

On December 11, Fox News’ America’s News HQ host Shannon Bream invited former Macy’s employee Natalie Johnson and Liberty Council founder Mathew Starver, on her show to discuss Johnson’s recent dismissal from Macy’s for failing to comply with the company’s anti-discrimination policy. Earlier this month, Johnson refused to let a transgender teenager use the women’s dressing room saying that it conflicted with her beliefs.

Only instead of fostering dialogue about the real bias transgender people encounter, Bream sat quietly as Johnson and Starver insulted the unidentified transgender customer, calling her “a man with lipstick.” In fact, she disparages the true identity of the transgender woman saying, “Were you told if you couldn’t comply with allowing him into the dressing room, you wouldn’t be with company policy, and you’d have to leave?”

Bream was also silent as Johnson and Starver made false and dangerous claims that protections for transgender people put other Americans at risk, an idea that has been roundly rejected by the American Psychological Association. Scores of municipalities around the country have enacted laws to protect their transgender citizens from harm and discrimination-- without sacrificing the well-being of anyone.

This isn’t the first time Fox News has abandoned its “fair and balanced” stance to provide a platform for anti-LGBT activists. According to Media Matters, Fox host Mike Huckabee has made outrageous comparisons between LGBT people and behaviors such as drug abuse and necrophilia. Similarly, Bill O’Reilly has asserted ridiculous claims on his prime time Fox News show and said that marriage equality could lead to nuptials between humans and animals.

Bream’s silence as her guests mischaracterized the lives of transgender individuals and her failure to highlight the very real problem of anti-transgender discrimination pulls her credibility as a journalist into question. Cable opinion programs like “America’s News HQ” have a responsibility to cover issues with a level of respect and civility. Shannon Bream failed to live up to that standard as she remained silent while her guests made these inaccurate remarks. Fox News Channel is equally accountable for providing a platform for this type of harmful and irresponsible commentary.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

Please contact Fox News Channel and voice your concerns about the station’s history of verbal attacks on LGBT people including this latest incident of defaming transgender people. Urge Bream and Fox News to apologize and tell the network to stop allowing its airwaves to be used for anti-LGBT defamation.