[Commentary] [DC, USA] Editorial Comment: Coming to Terms
Stephanie Stevens
Editorial Comment: Coming to Terms
By Martin Austermuhle in News on February 3, 2012 4:50 PM
Early this morning I included a link in the Morning Roundup to a WTOP
story of a "man dressed as a woman" who had been stabbed at a bus stop
yesterday. I didn't read the story closely and moved on with the day.
Later in the morning
<http://dcist.com/2012/02/transgender_woman_dies_after_stabbi.php> ,
Ben provided an update under the title "Transgender Person Dies After
Being Stabbed at Bus Stop." In the article, as I and other outlets had
done, he referred to the victim as a "man dressed as a woman."
In both the Morning Roundup link and the subsequent use of "man
dressed as a woman" in Ben's follow-up, we were in the wrong -- both
by AP standards and what many readers and advocates expect.
The AP Stylebook is relatively clear on the issue: "Use the pronoun
preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical
characteristics of the oposite sex or present themselves in a way that
does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not
expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals
live publicly." In this case, saying "she was stabbed" and "she died"
would have been accurate.
Would it have been appropriate? That's of course a tougher question. I
spoke to Renee Rathjen from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's
Academy for Leadership, and she stressed that while using the term
"woman" and associated pronouns is accurate in this case, we should
still be mindful of gender-specific terms:
Please do not assume anyone's gender, even people you may have met
in the past. A person's external appearance may not match their
internal gender identity. You cannot know the gender or sex of someone
by their physical body, voice, appearance or mannerisms. Pay attention
to a person's purposeful gender expression. We consider it polite to
ask: "What pronoun do you prefer?" or "How do you identify?" before
using pronouns or gendered words for anyone. When you are unsure of a
person's gender identity and you don't have an opportunity to ask
someone what words they prefer, try using that person's name or
gender-neutral phrases like "the person in the red shirt," instead of
"that woman or man."
She also added that including mention of the fact that a person was
transgender is important, as it raises much-needed awareness. As Ben
noted in his piece, there was a spate of attacks on transgender
individuals <http://dcist.com/2011/09/dc_police_struggle_with_more_transg.php>
last summer in the city. Rathjen noted that transgender individuals
face physical assault at a rate of 61 percent, and that it's even
higher for transgender people of color. (The Post has more on that
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-buzz/post/dc-transcoalition-speaks-after-transgender-stabbing-victim-dies/2012/02/03/gIQAnMjanQ_blog.html#pagebreak>
.) "It is incredibly important that acts of violence against oppressed
populations are named as such," she said.
This is probably way too long a mea culpa, but it's worth being said
given the comments and emails we received. Moving forward, we'll stick
with the AP style and keep Rathjen's comments firmly in mind. Society
and journalism are constantly evolving, and sometimes the latter lags
behind the former. This was one of those cases.