Just Listen

This week we tackled a big one - an issue important by nature, but also wildly relevant in relation to the news.

But taking on a topic of great weight was not the challenge. It was remaining neutral within highly polarized interviews.

Within the controversial fight over transgender rights, a focus has found its way to the national spotlight. It's really a simple topic, but it's used to define and limit the pure existence of the transgender community.

Bathrooms - a simple right of passage people like me, as a cisgender woman, never think twice about.

The opposition comes at it with a concern of privacy and protection. The transgender community views it as a basic human right - generally speaking, of course.

It was within this contrast that I was able to gain an extremely important journalistic lesson, one that I have run away from for quite some time. That is simply to listen.

Though I’ve never questioned my listening abilities point blank, I was aware I did so with opinions in the back of my mind. And those suckers without a doubt influenced what I heard or held on to.

But this week was different. When interviewing people from each side, what I thought didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I fully understood their feelings and opinions- not mine, theirs. And as challenging it may have been, as tight as my hands were after and as much the corners of my mouth were strained, I believe I did just that.

By conquering this feat, it gave me confidence I could pursue another area I’ve long sworn off: political reporting.

I don't know if D.C. speaks to me the way New York does, but knowing another area of reporting lights my fire the way social justice coverage does, leaves me with a peculiar comfort.