Local Reporter Gets GLAAD Nom

Congratulations are in order. Lauren McGaughy, a queer woman working for The Dallas Morning News as an investigative reporter in its Austin bureau, has been rightfully nominated for a 2020 GLAAD Media Award for her article “Texas Leads the Nation in Transgender Murders. After the Latest Attack, the Dallas Trans Community Asks Why.”

Nominated for Outstanding News Article, McGaughy shares the bill with Maria L. La Ganga of the Los Angeles Times, Rick Rojas of The New York Times, Chris Johnson of the Washington Blade, and Susan Miller of USA Today. Each year, GLAAD honors the media – from blockbuster movies and TV shows to newspaper and magazine reporting – for “fair, accurate, and inclusive representations” of the LGBTQ community and “the issues that affect their lives.”

McGaughy’s piece ran in September, shortly after the murders of Muhlaysia Booker and Chynal Lindsey – two black trans women living in Dallas. Texas, according to McGaughy’s research, has lost more trans folks to violence than any other state in the last five years – too many of whom were killed in Dallas. Her story takes a hard look at why here, why now, and points a (rightful) finger at the state’s political leaders who continue to target trans and queer Texans.

We’re lucky to have reporters like McGaughy working to amplify (and fight for) the voices of Texas’ trans community. When asked how she was feeling, McGaughy confessed she's “conflicted being nominated for this award. It's truly an honor to be recognized along great work from the Los Angeles and New York Times, USA Today Network, and Washington Blade. But the fact that anti-transgender violence in Texas has become so prevalent, so insidious, and so misunderstood to require such coverage is, frankly, infuriating. And while I put the words to paper, this was not my story. It's Muhlaysia Booker's story and Chynal Lindsay's. It's Daniela Calderon's. Thank you to the women of Transfusion Radio, Carter Brown from Black Transmen Inc, Leslie McMurray and Monica Roberts of Transgriot fame for lending me their voices, however briefly. If I win, it will be for them.”

The awards ceremony will be held in both New York (March 19) and L.A. (April 16).