CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

As transgender rights and protections are increasingly under fire, representation is vitally important–now more than ever.

Following the leak of a Trump administration memo seeking to “define ‘transgender’ out of existence,” calls quadrupled to Trans Lifeline, a peer-to-peer transgender support hotline. At times like this, being able to see yourself have a healthy, fulfilling, normal life can be a matter of life or death.

The very idea that a transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming (GNC) person can even have a normal life in most places is a relatively new phenomenon. Of course, the potential to have such a life hinges on certain other factors, such as the race, gender presentation, geographic location, disability, and socioeconomic status of any given person.

With this in mind, it seems only necessary for institutions–with the privilege that many transgender people do not have–to at least show trans, non-binary, and GNC people surviving and thriving.

One institution that historically scorns and excludes trans people is healthcare.

And that is where #ReproHealthIncludes comes in.

While many people may see Planned Parenthood as a provider of “Women’s Health”–whatever that means–they actually offer healthcare (including reproductive, STI, gender-affirming, and education services) to anyone, regardless of gender identity. (They even train their staff to be trans-inclusive!)

However, since most people only know–and most people only talk about–Planned Parenthood as a place that offers abortion, contraception, and reproductive services for (cis) women, many people don’t know nor realize that:

1) Planned Parenthood offer these services to anyone who needs them; and

2) People who aren’t women need these services.

Comprehensive reproductive healthcare is crucially important for anyone with the ability to have a child.

As such, #ReproHealthIncludes would set out to reflect the inclusivity Planned Parenthood already fosters while simultaneously bringing awareness to the fact that there are people who aren’t cis women who need the reproductive healthcare services Planned Parenthood offers.

We want everyone who needs reproductive healthcare to feel like they can get it at Planned Parenthood because #ReproHealthIncludes YOU!

TARGET AUDIENCES

#ReproHealthIncludes has 2 main target audiences: cis women and trans people.

More specifically, we are targeting middle-to-upper class, politically liberal/Democratic/left-leaning Millennial cis women (ages 18-30) and politically liberal/Democratic/left-leaning young people (Generation Z) across the gender and socioeconomic spectrums (ages 16-25).

We are targeting these groups because they are the 2 groups it is most important for our message to reach.

Millennial cis women, especially those who grew up learning second-wave feminism, are the ones with the power to include trans people in the reproductive health conversation, making them an important demographic to reach.

What worked: Whitman-Walker Health truly follows through on their promise of seeing patients for who they are, whatever that might be. They don’t just talk the talk of diversity and inclusion, they live and breath it every day. In depicting queer and trans people as normal people who need healthcare and can get it, they’re the gold-standard.

What didn’t: While the “40 Stories” campaign did more-or-less what it set out to do–spotlight the organization in the community–it didn’t seem to generate much added buzz on social media. Each post seemed to receive about as much engagement as other similar posts. The biggest issue with the campaign, which is in part explained by its purpose, is just how wordy it is. Every story is an entire article which, for the purposes of this specific campaign, worked fine, but would not work in most other contexts.

Broadly: Gender Spectrum Collection

To celebrate Transgender Visibility Week in March 2019, Vice’s Broadly released the Gender Spectrum Collection, “a stock photo library featuring trans and non-binary models that aims to help media better represent members of these communities.”

After encountering a lack of positive trans representation in stock imagery, the editors of Broadly saw their opportunity to do some good. With the help of 15 trans and non-binary models and a trans photographer, they created a library of more than 180 images that show trans people just living their daily lives.

“Trans people are rarely depicted as engaging with their communities or participating in public life, which severely limits the range of experiences we imagine transgender people to have,” editors said. The goal of the campaign was to give editors more inclusive photo options to accompany stories as well as to encourage them to use photos of trans people on stories that have nothing to do with trans people–because, once again, trans people are everyday people!

What worked: Almost everything. The campaign made the rounds on social media, but its main objective was to provide a new resource to editors, journalists, bloggers, publicists, and social media marketers. (Many of the images in this proposal are taken from the collection!) While it remains to be seen how often these images will be used, the fact that an organization took the time to interrogate itself and took steps to remedy a problem they feed into is a model that all organizations should follow. What Broadly did was create a broad template to follow; we hope that #ReproHealthIncludes can be Planned Parenthood’s interpretation of that template.

What didn’t: As was said, we don’t yet know the long-term usage statistics of the photos, so it's hard to say how impactful they will be. We can venture a guess that they will be used fairly often considering the recent uptick in searches for transgender- and genderfluid-related stock imagery cited by Broadly, but we can only hope.

The only improvements they could have made would be to include more body size and disabled representation, but those are easy to remedy. In fact, those are things #ReproHealthIncludes can improve upon!