Susan Ryan-Vollmar, editor of Bay Windows, failed to follow the Associated Press's Style Guide on how to refer to transgendered people in last week's letter. The 2000 version of the style guide specifically says you should refer to a person by the gender they prefer regardless of whether or not you are talking about the person in the past, present, or future. And considering Vollmar writes that Michelle Kosilek had been struggling with her gender identity since she was three, you'd think she would understand that the right thing to do would be to call her by the pronoun and name she has identified with for most of her life.
(Michelle) Kosilek has struggled with gender dysphoria since he was 3
years old and his mother abandoned him at
an orphanage where he was punished for dressing as a
girl.......Later in the article:
While in prison, Kosilek was initially denied treatment for her gender dysphoria. She attempted suicide twice and once tried to castrate herself. She sued the Massachusetts Department of Corrections for its failure to treat her medical condition.
This week, InNewsWeekly also failed to use the appropriate pronouns when refering to Michelle. On page A11 they write:
Kilosek was Robert Kosilek when he was convicted...he legally changed his name
to Michelle.
The sentence should read "Michelle Kilosek was Robert Kosilek when she was convicted...in 1993 she legally changed her name."
2 comments:
I don't understand why a newspaper for our community can't get these things right.
Update: According to InNewsWeekly, they ran the the AP article (and the AP often neglects to follow their own guide!) in a crunch for time. Typically they would have edited the AP article to be correct...
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