Executive Editor
Restatement of Mercury News Position on gender and
pronoun use:
Until a transgender person under goes a sex change operation we use the person given name and his or her sex at the time. After a sex change operation the newspaper style is to use a person’s new proper name and sex.
It has been our experience that this definition ( style ) doesn’t work for the following reasons.
Disclosing medical information.
By making it known that you change pronouns after a person has had a
surgical procedure it becomes the same as disclosing a person’s medical
information. This is certainly unethical and most probably illegal.
Undeterminable condition leads to erroneous reporting. The assumption that there is a single surgical procedure that changes/completes the “sex change” is incorrect. There are a variety of procedures, some with multiple steps, which are used for genital surgery. The procedures vary for men and women. A person may elect to have all or part of the procedures depending on many factors such as financial resources. How does the Mercury News plan to determine what pronoun to use for an individual? What pronoun do you use for a man who has had his breast and ovaries removed but still has a vagina? Or a woman with breasts and a penis? This situation can arise without surgery by only the use of hormones. Gender is much more of a continuum then the Mercury News might think.
Inconsistent reporting.
In spite of the Mercury News current style guidelines, pronouns are used inconsistently. The way the Mercury News actually assigns pronouns is based on if the report is being sensitive to the transgender community or is trying to sensationalize a murder. See Ken McLaughlin and Yomi Wronge’s Nov. 2 article entitled “Slaying shows the need for understanding, education, transgenders say”. An admitted preoperative transsexual, Nicole, is referred to as “she”. Had she been murdered she would be referred to by her old name and pronoun.
Defining people according to their genitals. To define a class of people by their genitals is degrading and fails to reflect anything about a person’s gender. Imagine if we defined men by their genitals. You might read a Mercury News report about a small man that was murdered living as if he were a big man. What bearing would the person’s genitals have on how they live their lives?
Doctors do not change gender. It is common knowledge in the transgender, psychological and medical communities that a surgery does not change someone gender. If you were not a woman before surgery you are not one after surgery. What if a man was in a tragic accident and lost his genitals. Do you now use feminine pronouns to describe him? By following your style guidelines you are implying that gender is completely determined by a person’s genitals. This is obviously not correct and very few people still hold this outdated belief.
Forces people to have surgery to attain basic rights. By requiring surgery before you will honor a person in their correct gender you join a long list of social biases that pressure transsexuals into having surgery. We don’t believe that a person should have to have surgery in order to be treated with respect. We hope you agree.
Proper Name change and surgery may not be consistent. Even if a person has not had surgery, if they have changed their name, you should honor that. A person has the right to choose their name. The Mercury News honors all other name changes except a transgender name change.
In place of the Mercury News guidelines we are endorsing the guidelines drawn up by The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation( GLAAD ) listed below:
PRONOUN USAGE, GENDER IDENTITY & SEXUAL ORIENTATION
We encourage you to ask transgender people which pronoun they would like you to
use. If it is not possible to ask the person which pronoun he or she prefers,
use the pronoun that is consistent with the person's appearance and gender
expression. Also, please do not put quotation marks around gender pronouns,
suggesting that the pronoun does not reflect the person's true sex.
Gender identity is an
integral part of a person's identity. Please do not characterize transgender
people as "deceptive," "pretending," "posing" or
"masquerading" as a man or a woman.
Gender identity and
sexual orientation are not the same. Transgender people may be heterosexual,
lesbian, gay or bisexual.
PROBLEMATIC
TERMINOLOGY
PROBLEMATIC: "sex
change," "pre-operative," "post-operative"
PREFERRED: "transition"
Altering one's birth sex is not a one-step procedure. It is a process that takes place over a long period of time. Using terms such as pre- or post-operative implies that one must have surgery in order to truly change one's sex.
PROBLEMATIC: "hermaphrodite"
PREFERRED: "intersex person"
The word
"hermaphrodite" is a stigmatizing and misleading word, usually used
to sensationalize intersex people.
DEFAMATORY:
"she-male," "he-she," "trannie,"
"tranny," "gender-bender"
These words only serve to dehumanize transgender people and should not be used
The Associated Press guidelines that were adopted as a result of meeting with GLAAD are as follows:
sex
changes: Use the
pronoun preferred by the individuals who have
acquired the physical characteristics (by hormone therapy, body
modification, or surgery) of the opposite sex and 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 talking with AP
editors it was clear the phrase body modification could be interpreted many
ways. Going back to the original meeting between AP and GLAAD it was clear that
it meant any number of
body changes such as: long hair, pierced ears, long finger nails,
makeup. It was intended to cover the non-surgical aspects of body change.
Gwen Araujo had been living full time as a female for more than a year. She had expressed her desires many times to be called Gwen and used the pronoun “she”. The last line in the AP style guide gives the correct guidance for this situation. Gwen, being so early in her transition, becomes problematic because the mother continues to use the pronoun “he” even though she also uses the name Gwen. This is not all that unusual. It should be noted that many gender based relationships take many years to evolve. Some never do. The pronoun preference is based on Gwen’s preference not on her mothers. Even in the case of a juvenile.
I hope this information will allow you to make a more informed decision about your style guidelines for transgendered people. Thank you for your concern and sensitivity to our community.
Shelly Prevost
Board of Directors