How journalist Imara Jones is fighting anti-trans narratives with her own media company

How journalist Imara Jones is fighting anti-trans narratives with her own media company
]Jun 21
Written by Erik Niewiarowski


Imara Jones is an award winning journalist and trans rights campaigner and activist. (Imara Jones/PinkNews)

PinkNews has spoken to award-winning journalist Imara Jones about how documenting her own story led to the launch of a media company, and about the roots of anti-trans legislation sweeping the US.

Reflecting on the origins of TransLash Media, Jones recalls her initial sceptical response to a colleague suggesting she create a documentary about her experience as a trans woman. “Why would I do that? Nobody’s going to care,” Jones remembers thinking.

She realised that if she believed trans stories wouldn’t resonate, then others were likely to hold that belief too. “That means that I [had] to do it,” she explains.  Through TransLash, the resulting documentary series, Jones set out to tell her story, as well as those of the trans community and the country as a whole during the Trump years.

“I believe that what is happening to trans people is an indicator and a way to understand what’s happening in this country overall,” she says.

Six years later and TransLash is a not-for-profit media platform that continues to tell the stories of the trans community through videos, podcasts, news articles and even a zine.
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