• Cable and broadcast TV news outlets dramatically increased their coverage of anti-trans violence in 2022, covering the issue in 89 segments that added up to more than 6 hours of combined coverage — more coverage than in any year previously studied by Media Matters.
• Coverage of the Club Q shooting in November accounted for 91% of segments. 
• Cable networks CNN and MSNBC ran a comparable number of segments (32 and 30, respectively) discussing Club Q, amounting to more than 4 hours of airtime, while Fox News ran only 4 segments, amounting to less than 10 minutes of airtime.
• In cable coverage of Club Q, trans or gender-nonconforming guests were featured in only 11% of segments. Fox News featured no segments discussing Club Q’s trans victims that featured trans or nonbinary guests.
• Fox News was the only network to not discuss the epidemic of violence against trans people in its segments on the shooting.
• Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS aired 15 segments discussing Club Q, adding up to around 55 minutes of coverage. 
• In broadcast coverage of Club Q, trans or nonbinary guests featured in just 13% of segments. ABC and CBS hosted no such guests in any Club Q segment.
• PBS was the only network to discuss the epidemic of violence against trans people in the majority of its segments on Club Q.
• Outside of coverage of the Club Q shooting, MSNBC was the only network among either cable or broadcast to air any segments on violence against trans people in the U.S. in 2022, running 8 segments with just over 48 minutes of coverage.

According to Human Rights Campaign’s list of fatal violence against trans and gender-nonconforming people, there were 38 trans people murdered in the U.S. in 2022. Based on HRC data, this represents a decrease from 2021, when fatal violence against trans and gender-nonconforming people reached a record high. As in previous years, trans women of color, and in particular Black trans women, continue to face the highest rates of violence and represent the majority of the victims. 

It is important to note the limitations of HRC’s list and, in turn, this study (which searched for coverage based on the names on the list). The list includes only those individuals whose deaths HRC states can definitively be shown to be the result of violent acts perpetrated by another individual. The organization lists a separate number of deaths into which it is calling for further investigation, including the deaths of at least five other trans or gender-nonconforming people killed in the U.S. in 2022. The list also does not include the murder of trans people outside the U.S., such as the 131 trans people killed in Brazil in 2022. 

The ability of researchers to track violence against trans people could additionally be hampered by the increasing failure of police departments across the U.S. to accurately track and report data on hate crimes.

These are the names of the murdered trans and gender non-conforming people identified by the Human Rights Campaign (on either list) in 2022: 

Segments on anti-trans violence this year amounted to just over 5 hours on cable and nearly 1 hour on broadcast networks. This far exceeded in length all cable and broadcast television coverage of anti-trans violence tracked by Media Matters in prior years, with the previous airtime high coming in 2020 with just 54 minutes of combined coverage across both cable and broadcast. 

Yet outside of coverage of Club Q, where two of five victims were trans, only one network — MSNBC — ran any segments addressing anti-trans violence whatsoever, marking a severe decrease in coverage by most national cable and broadcast networks. 

Across all cable coverage of anti-trans violence in 2022, only 15% of segments featured a trans or nonbinary guest and 36% discussed individual acts of violence in context of a larger epidemic of violence occurring against trans people. 

Broadcast coverage featured trans or gender-nonconforming guests in 13% of segments and contextualized violence in only a third of its segments.

The Club Q shooting occurred on the evening of November 19, when a gunman entered Club Q, and killed five of its patrons on the eve of Trans Day of Remembrance, an observance meant to memorialize trans people murdered because of their identity. 

Despite running more segments explicitly discussing the victims of violence perpetrated against trans people this year than in any other year tracked by Media Matters, both cable and broadcast news networks continued to struggle with issues of substance. 

Cable networks ran a total of 66 segments on Club Q, amounting to around 4 hours and 17 minutes of coverage. MSNBC and CNN ran a comparable number of segments about the Club Q shooting (30 and 32 respectively), amounting to more than four hours of coverage. Fox News, however, ran only 4 segments, amounting to less than 10 minutes of coverage. 

In cable coverage of the shooting, trans or gender non-conforming people were brought on as guests in only 11% of segments. Fox News ran no segments that included such guests. 

In its segments on the shooting, CNN mentioned the larger context of violence against trans people in only 22% of segments compared to MSNBC, which provided this context in 40% of segments. Only one network across both cable and broadcast failed to place the Club Q shooting in context of the epidemic of violence against trans people in any of its segments — Fox News. 

While declining to discuss the epidemic of violence against trans people, Fox News devoted an enormous amount of time to attacking trans people, airing 170 segments about trans people over the course of just three weeks in March and April 2022 and often including dangerous misinformation. The network also gave its (now-former) host Tucker Carlson a platform to both call for violence against trans allies and deny that trans people face higher rates of violence than their cis counterparts. 

Broadcast networks aired 15 segments on Club Q, adding up to around 55 minutes of coverage. ABC had the most coverage of the shooting, with more segments (6) and more airtime spent (just over 19 minutes) than any other broadcast network. PBS carried the least coverage of Club Q, with the fewest segments (2) and the least amount of airtime (just under 11 minutes). 

Broadcast networks included trans or nonbinary guests in only 13% of segments about the shooting, and half of the broadcast networks tracked for this study — CBS and ABC — included no trans or gender-nonconforming guests in any of their segments.

Only one broadcast network mentioned the ongoing violence against trans people in the U.S. in the majority of its segments — PBS, which discussed it in both of its 2 segments. The other broadcast networks gave this context in only one segment each.

Prior to the shooting at Club Q, MSNBC was the only cable network that devoted any segments to fatal violence faced by trans people in 2022. That coverage, comprised of a single segment in April, aired on MSNBC’s The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.

Following the violence at Club Q, MSNBC ran 7 other segments not explicitly centered on the Club Q shooting. Several segments ran on November 20 that discussed Trans Day of Remembrance and the broader issue of violence faced by trans people.

Mehdi Hasan featured journalists Parker Molloy (a former Media Matters staffer) and Imara Jones on his show on December 3 to discuss anti-trans legislation, including how anti-trans rhetoric can lead to violence.

On December 14, three separate MSNBC shows ran segments on the House of Representatives’ hearing on anti-LGBTQ extremism and violence. MSNBC was the only major national cable or broadcast network to run any segments on the hearing.

In total, outside of coverage devoted to the Club Q shooting, cable news ran 8 segments on anti-trans violence — all on MSNBC. While this represents fewer than half as many segments as have run on cable news in either of the two previous years, the disparity among networks is stark. While CNN and Fox News ran no segments on anti-trans violence in 2022 that were not about the Club Q shooting, MSNBC’s non-Club Q coverage alone represents an increase in coverage for the network from last year. However, only a quarter of the MSNBC segments not centered on Club Q named a victim of fatal violence against trans people in 2022 and only half included a guest who is trans or nonbinary. 

Beyond coverage focusing on and resulting from the shooting at Club Q, the four national broadcast news networks tracked — ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS — did not run a single segment in 2022 discussing violence faced that year by trans people in the U.S.

Media networks have a track record of fixating on individual tragedies that provide opportunities for sensationalized coverage rather than drawing earnest attention to the stark reality of violence against marginalized people in America. This can give the impression that violence against trans people is isolated rather than an epidemic affecting many communities. 

To discuss the victimization of trans people while insulating their audiences from essential perspectives by rarely featuring trans guests, networks perpetuate tropes that dehumanize and delegitimize the lived experience of millions, including those whose stories these news outlets do opt to tell. 

When more than half of Americans still say they do not know a trans person, and amid a precipitous and unprecedented rise in GOP-led legislative attacks on trans rights, the ways in which TV news networks shape public perception of trans lives can have profound effects on the ability of trans people to live free from discrimination and free from violence.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the Kinetiq video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC and all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; NBC’s Today, Nightly News and Meet the Press; and PBS’s NewsHour for any variations of any of the terms “transgender,” “trans,” “anti trans,” “gender identity,” “nonbinary,” or “gender nonconforming” within 50 words of any variations of any of the terms “murder,” “kill,” “shot,” “stabbed,” “dead,” “death,” “die,” or “homicide” from January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022. 

We also searched for the names of the transgender and gender-nonconforming people who were killed in 2022: Caelee Love-Light, Mar’Quis “MJ” Jackson, Destiny Howard, Diamond Jackson-McDonald, Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Tiffany Banks, Semaj Billingslea, Acey Morrison, Mya Allen, Dede Ricks, Maddie Hofmann, Aaron Lynch, Kandii Reed, Hayden Davis, Marisela Castro, Cherry Bush, Keshia Chanel Geter, Martasia Richmond, Kitty Monroe, Shawmaynè Giselle Marie, Brazil Johnson, Sasha Mason, Chanelika Y'Ella Dior Hemingway, Nedra Sequence Morris, Amariey Lej, Duval Princess, Cypress Ramos, Naomie Skinner, Matthew Angelo Spampinato, Paloma Vazquez, Tatiana Labelle, Kathryn “Katie” Newhouse, Kenyatta “Kesha” Webster, Miia Love Parker, Ariyanna Mitchell, Fern Feather, and Ray Muscat.

Finally, we searched transcripts in the Nexis database for all of the above terms and names. For Fox News and MSNBC, this double-check was limited to news shows airing between 5 p.m. and midnight; for the other networks we were able to search transcripts for all hours.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when anti-trans violence was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of anti-trans violence. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed anti-trans violence with one another. We rounded all times to the nearest minute.

We did not include passing mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned anti-trans violence without another speaker engaging with the comment, or teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about anti-trans violence scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We then reviewed all identified segments for whether they included mentions of specific acts of violence against trans people, the name of a trans person who was victim to violence, a trans or nonbinary guest, or context connecting the anti-trans violence to the larger national trend of increasing violence directed at trans people.