Thursday, April 1, 2010

No Joke-NY Media Fails To Read AP Stylebook

You know, how hard is it for media people to grasp this concept?

transgender-Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite 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.


Once again, the media fails in a story involving a transwoman, and this time it happens in our country's so-called media capital.

And it's not like you media peeps don't get enough practice in getting stories on trans people right. Every two days somewhere on the planet a transperson is murdered. Every now and then transpeople make the news for something other than being a murder victim, and you still frack the pronouns up.

Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar was a 29-year old trans woman who was found stabbed to death in her Queens, NY apartment. Her apartment had been ransacked and much of her possessions destroyed. A man she recently began dating is suspected of committing the crime.

And guess how the New York Times and other NY newspapers initially identified Ms. Gonzalez-Andujar? By using her old name and calling her a 'man'.

They've corrected the stories, but it's still infuriating to have to say the same crap over and over about a concept that elementary school kids get.