LGBTQ+

Knowing what or what not to do, and when, involves—as always, in journalism—judgment calls. “You end up in situations like, Can I as a nonbinary trans person report on the laws that are trying to make my existence illegal? Is that bias? Well, it is,” O’Connell said. “I’m biased against those laws. I don’t want to be driven out of Austin by the state government. So can I report on those things? I think I should report on those things. But certainly, some publications would have made the argument that I am too biased to report on them.” The stories O’Connell is most drawn to—local news that bobs between the giant, cresting waves of national headlines about marginalized people—have been arising with greater intensity, these days. In life, in work, in Austin, O’Connell is submerged.