Transphobia is so extreme in our country, that when someone has been inarguably violated or discriminated against for being transgndered, the media turns its head. And, when a transgender person has triumphed over discrimination, the media also flubs it. Helena Stone and Lily B. McBeth are each examples of trans invisibility.

Helena Stone is a sweet, soft-spoken male-to-female phone repairwoman working in Grand Central. She was arrested three times for “disorderly conduct” simply for using the women’s bathroom. The NYC transit police banged on the bathroom stall door and yelled at her. They called her a freak and “the ugliest woman in the world.” The only mainstream news reports on the abuses were a tiny “Metro Briefing” in the NY Times, a piece in Newsday and one in the Metro. None of the articles took the time to discuss whether it’s actually illegal for a transgender-identified individual to use a public restroom designated for their preferred gender. Find Law, an online legal resource, explores the various facets of NYC public restroom discrimination law, (Newsday sort of mentions it), and points out that the Human Rights Law “prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, as well as on the basis of gender expression.” This means the transit policemen’s abuses were illegal, not Helena Stone’s use of the women’s bathroom. I have to wonder why such disgusting abuse is so underreported. The Metro's piece, tasteless titled "MTA's Gender Bender," doesn’t mention public restroom law or Human Rights Law.

Lily McBeth, an f-t-m New Jersey substitute teacher who transitioned and then tried to reenter the school district, was met with parent protests. When the school board voted to allow her to teach, it was a huge victory, especially because the state’s discrimination laws don’t specifically include transgender people, a legal concern not mentioned in any mainstream press coverage. USA Today, The Daily News and ABC News all regurgitated the same quotes and offered very little investigation into what this kind of success means for transgender rights. They’re still hung up on the shock of a man becoming a woman (Good Morning America did a whole spiel about what a man’s man Lily used to be, come on!). When will they get over the sensationalism and move toward examining these cases through the lens of equal rights? Both of these women are 70 years old. They are seniors who are still contributing to society and just trying to make their way in the world, but they have rights that need, at very least, to be mentioned in the press