El Nuevo Herald wins national GLAAD award for documentary on transgender community
An emotional documentary that highlights the challenges transgender men and women must overcome to achieve inner peace, produced last year by staffers of el Nuevo Herald, has received the national GLAAD award for Outstanding Spanish-Language Online Journalism - Video or Multimedia.
The documentary Soy Trans: El camino a un nuevo despertar — “I am Trans: The road to a new awakening” — spotlights the difficult journey towards acceptance that transgender people go through, from the time they become aware of their gender identity to asserting their civil rights, at a time when the trans community has lagged behind the social advancement of other LGBTQ minority groups.
The award-winning documentary was directed and edited by Esther Piccolino, the video was shot by José Sepúlveda and José A. Iglesias, and the story was written by Sarah Moreno.
I am Trans: The path to a new awakening
“Soy Trans puts the transgender community on the front page, showcasing their struggles, hopes and dreams,” Piccolino said. “But the most important thing is that it was done in our Spanish language.”
GLAAD is the world’s largest organization advocating for LGBTQ people in the media. Its awards recognize and honor journalists, filmmakers and others for fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBTQ community and issues that affect its members.
Monica Trasandes, director of Spanish media for GLAAD, told el Nuevo Herald that the documentary was worthy of this recognition for the “inclusive” way in which it presented transgender women and men in their daily lives, giving them infrequent visibility.
“A lot of people say they have a gay or lesbian friend, but there is still not that level of knowledge of who transgender people are,” said Trasandes. “They are people who are working in banks, hospitals, supermarkets; living their lives and contributing to society, but their stories are often not heard in the media.
“Prejudice comes from simple ignorance; not meeting transgender people causes many to have incorrect ideas about who they are, ” Trasandes added.
Ignorance and prejudice can have life and death consequences. In 2020, 44 transgender or gender non-conforming people were killed in violent attacks in the United States, according to statistics from the Human Rights Campaign.
“2020 was the deadliest year in history for trans and non-binary people, mostly black and brown,” Sepúlveda said, adding that the documentary pays tribute to the contributions of the transgender community.
One of the prominent figures in the documentary, community activist Aiyana Angeni González, is the first transgender chair of the Miami-Dade County LGBTQ Advisory Board.
“It was very emotional to get to know Aiyana, a transgender Hispanic woman who has also become a successful community leader,” said Moreno, who added she could not forget something González told her: “I am not in the wrong body, but in the perfect body.”
This is the fourth time El Nuevo Herald has won a national GLAAD award and the second time it has won in this category.
In 2019, the award was given to a documentary video report on how Spanish television channels continue to marginalize and distort the LGBTQ community. The production team included reporter Daniel Shoer Roth, who wrote the script with producer Piccolino and videographers Matías J. Ocner and Daniel Varela. Shoer Roth also received the award in 2005 and 2008, in print journalism categories.
The 32nd annual GLAAD Awards will be officially announced during a virtual ceremony Thursday at 8 p.m. The event will premiere on GLAAD’s YouTube channel and will also air on Hulu at 10 p.m.
For details on the virtual ceremony, including performers, special guests, and more, click here.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 1:45 PM.