{"id":2435,"date":"2023-06-15T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/06\/15\/transgender-suicide-interviewing-sources-ethics-narrative-structure\/"},"modified":"2025-01-13T19:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T19:33:15","slug":"transgender-suicide-interviewing-sources-ethics-narrative-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/06\/15\/transgender-suicide-interviewing-sources-ethics-narrative-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the “bigger and higher purpose” to cover transgender issues and suicide"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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For state legislator Karen Berg of Kentucky, the fight against anti-trans legislation was entwined with the memory of her transgender son, Henry. For reporter Willian Wan of The Washington Post<\/a>, telling both halves of that story was an opportunity, a challenge and an honor.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The resulting story was published this past March: \u201cShe lost her trans son to suicide. Can a Kentucky make her colleagues care?\u201d<\/a><\/strong> It traces both the personal and political struggles in Berg\u2019s lonely stance against her colleagues\u2019 legislation. The story opens with a wrenching scene of Berg entering her son\u2019s bedroom after his death. The first simple but wrenching line:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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She wanted to hear Henry\u2019s voice again.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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William Wan Sarah L. Voisin \/ The Washington Post<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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It briefly dips into backstory of Henry\u2019s own testimony own testimony, at age 16, before Kentucky legislators. It makes a deft move to foreshadow of Berg\u2019s own impending testimony before her colleagues. And it stays with Berg as she moves further into the bedroom, until she discovers the note in which Henry had listed the pros and cons of committing suicide \u2014 \u201cI didn\u2019t expect this, I\u2019m not ready,\u201d Berg says. From there, the story moves to Berg\u2019s legislative crusade, placed in the contest of a larger anti-LGBTQ+ movement nationwide. Along the way, it serves as a vivid profile of Henry Berg-Brousseau.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Wan\u2019s answers to Storyboard questions and his annotation of the story provide several lessons for reporters looking to approach sensitive, nuanced, multi-layered stories with clarity and tact:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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