An “investigation” by far-right, anti-LGBT+ publication Faits et Documents, “Facts and Documents” on Brigitte Macron, schoolteacher and wife of French president, has released a damaging force of anti-transgender rhetoric on mainstream media and social media.

The investigation was focused on Macron’s gender identity, adding to age-old tropes that paint being transgender as ‘secret’ that needs to be kept in the closet.

Now, Macron is taking legal action against those who have been writing or posting that she is trans.

If Macron isn’t trans, what if mainstream media and the schoolteacher took this moment to instead emphasize that being trans is nothing to be ashamed of? And that the speculation around someone’s gender identity comes from patriarchal forces of oppression that restrict everyone?

I’m not here to go into whether Macron is trans or not – it’s none of my business. Scapegoating an individual for a problem that’s woven into the fabric of how we perceive gender, will not unravel our internalized transphobia and misogyny.

But it is important to call out the impact that the media's coverage of this has: most popular news outlets are reporting through a lens where ‘transness’ and ‘conspiracy theory’ gain proximity, setting a precedent for implicit biases on how we view transness.

This kind of anti-trans rhetoric dismisses trans people’s identity, and perpetuates violence that disproportionately impacts trans women at intersecting identities because of cisgender-heterosexual insecurities built on myths and stereotypes about gender and attraction.

Mainstream media needs to do better by hiring trans reporters and editors — the ongoing epidemic of violence impacting trans people is exacerbated by an ongoing legacy of misrepresenting trans people.