PGN had the opportunity to accept a prestigious award from the Society of Professional Journalists last weekend, given in recognition of Tim Cwiek’s more-than decade-long coverage of the still-unsolved homicide of local transgender woman Nizah Morris. The PGN team was both honored and humbled to have our name announced amid the traditional “greats” in journalism. While the recognition was appreciated, seeing Nizah’s story played out in front of such a wide audience reinforced the notion that the real value of journalism — LGBT journalism in particular — lies not in circulation numbers, page clicks, “likes” or shares, but in the stories themselves and the people whose lives are positively impacted by them.
The field of LGBT journalism is infused with the spirit of a community that in large part has its foundations in activism. Our community has spent decades fighting for rights, recognition and respect, and that attitude has translated into the media outlets that represent us, PGN included.
The evolution of media, however, has brought about a changing face of journalism. People want their news now, and competition is rife — causing some to rely on packaging of the product, rather than the product itself, to grab readers. But where is the journalistic value, for instance, in a recent piece published in Philadelphia that stereotyped the older gay male community as sex-focused, superficial and striving for youth? By the youth-centric commentary, it was clearly produced by a young writer. But putting forth such images in LGBT media not only promulgates stereotypes — certainly not all, or even anywhere near the majority of, gay men past middle age spend their weekends trolling summer hot spots looking for young dates — but also diminishes past progress made by a generation that paved the way for LGBT writers of today.
What last weekend’s ceremony showed PGN is that we need more stories that uphold the activist spirit of our community. Tim Cwiek’s Nizah Morris coverage has taken him to court after court, judge after judge, hangup after hangup. He’s met with and interviewed officials across the police department, legal department, police-oversight committee. PGN has pressed elected officials during each campaign season about the action they would take on the case. Tim has poured over page after page of legal jargon, and weeded through it to find the myriad inconsistencies that are making the search for justice all the more elusive.
We need journalism like this. Not stories about beach bods and bar specials. We need stories that illustrate, through the words and the work behind them, the resilience, strength and power of our community.