Tweet
As we’re reading about how Victoria Carmen White was treated in death by officers of the law and mainstream media, it’s appropriate to remind our blenders what the media stylebooks state about reporting on transgender people, transsexuals, and those who identify as both transgender and transsexual.
From the Associated Press Styleguide (2006):
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.
And the New York Times (2005):
Transgender is an overall term for people whose current identity differs from their sex at birth, whether or not they have changed their biological characteristics. Cite a person’s transgender status only when it is pertinent and its pertinence is clear to the reader. Unless a former name is newsworthy or pertinent, use the name and pronouns (he, his, she, her, hers) preferred by the transgender person. If no preference is known, use the pronouns consistent with the way the subject lives publicly.”
From the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Reference Guide:
Transition: Altering one’s birth sex is not a one-step process; it is a complex process that occurs over a long period of time. Transition includes some or all of the following personal, legal and medical adjustments: telling one’s family, friends and/or co-workers; changing one’s name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) one or more forms of surgery.Sex Reassignment: Refers to surgical alteration, and is only one small part of transition . Preferred term to ‘sex change operation.’ Not all transgender people choose to or can afford to have SRS. Journalists should avoid overemphasizing the role of SRS in the transition process.
And…
Problematic: ‘sex change,’ ‘pre-operative,’ ‘post-operative’Preferred: ‘transition’ Referring to a sex change operation, or using terms such as pre- or post-operative, inaccurately suggests that one must have surgery in order to transition. Avoid overemphasizing surgery when discussing transgender people or the process of transition.
Most of us are aware that reporters get information from police spokespeople, and often police spokespeople use terminology that doesn’t conform to journalism stylebooks — the “industry standards” for journalists. This doesn’t relieve reporters of the duty of checking the facts of what they’re told by the police; this doesn’t relieve reporters of the need to familiarize themselves with journalism standards regarding people in minority groups that a particular journalist may or may not be familiar with.
If the Maplewood Patch — as well as every other news organization in the country — doesn’t have a “transgender” section in their styleguide, they should consider adding one now. Transgender people, transsexuals, and people who identify as both transgender and transsexual — we’re all becoming more visible in broader western society. Recognized journalism standards regarding trans people and transgender community should be adopted by all journalism outlets across the United States.
To not adopt the journalism’s “industry standards” for reporting on trans people is to ensure that disrespect for violent crime victims like Victoria will continue to occur far too often well into the future.
12 Comments
Need help to clarifyCan someone post or comment the differences between transgendered, trannsexuals, and etc…? I would check but I’m to lazy and I’m using a school computer. I know for a fact that many people inaccurately equate anybody that likes to dress in women’s clothing or women in men’s clothing as “LGBT” for even being transgendered, when in fact they are not!
Another one that you can add is……The National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association’s stylebook(s).
They are available here:
http://www.nlgja.org/resources…
One viewhttp://aebrain.blogspot.com/20…
There are others. e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…
Note that 99% of people would take you to task for being lazy.
See http://www.derailingfordummies… sections 1 and 2.
Fortunately, I’ve always been an oddball. It’s easier to give links too – I’m lazy as well.
Teehee….You are an odd-ball, though in a cute way.
I agree though in this case. Sometimes it’s easier and more accurate just to provide links. It can save a lot of arguments too.
This is great…Hey Autumn,
Thanks for the great and informative post. I’m not transgender, but my partner and I are in awe of transgender folks… you must go through so much more in your coming out process as transgender than someone who comes out as gay or lesbian.
I knew (or intuited) a lot of the above, bur the pre and post op information is news to me, and really good to know. I know my own friends and relatives often use (innocently) the dreaded “lifestyle” word, so it’s always good to understand the weight and connotations of the words we use when describing other people.
Thanks so much for this post!
–Scott & Mark
my two cents worthVictoria was a woman, had a woman’s body at her death and a legal woman’s name. That is the bottom line. The cops and the DA knew this and so this disrespect of a victim of violent crime is beyond any “media guidelines” or some such rot.
Look at the pictures of this woman, there simply is no way in hell she could be IDed as male without deliberate malice. According to accounts of those who knew her, her family was being openly disrespectful of her identity and may have been contributors to the erasure of her womanhood and even more sadly, often in such cases will bury a woman of history in total violation of that as well. I sincerely hope this final insult is not heaped upon a woman, who by all accounts, was a gentle, loving, caring and sharing soul.
If the DA is not pursuing this case as a hate crime (and how can he absent a suspect at this time) there was simply no legitimate reason to mention the word “transgender” at all in a press release let alone her birth name.
It is extremely difficult to not question if race was not also a factor in this official total disrespect.
An apology and correction is not enough in a case like this, someone should lose their job.
and I am also pissed that her death is being usedto push the TG line that being post corrected doesn’t matter. It is of supreme importance to those who needed to correct their bodies to match their souls and did so. Victoria corrected her body at a fairly young age so it is almost beyond a doubt that her womanhood was very very very important to her and almost as disrespectful of that to use her death as an excuse to further the erasure of differences between those born with a neurological birth condition that is surgically correctable and those clearly not born with this condition.
She was a woman, period.
So Torn While I appreciate the need for journalistic standards, I can’t help but be a bit put off by GLAAD’s appropriation of setting the trans language in the stylebook. It seems to me that the terms, rules and definitions rendered are internally inconsistent and confuse rather than clarify.
’Transgender’ is a superset. It is a descriptive label applied to anyone that transgresses society’s somewhat arbitrary expectations for 100% male or 100% female appearance and behavior. It can also be a chosen social and political identity that is conveyed by the same criteria.
Victoria White did not appear to be transgender under that definition. However, in our culture the label is also applied to those that transgress gender expectations in their history despite their current appearance and role, and that is where the current outrage lies. In arguing that she should not have been referred to by her former name and labeled sex it must follow that she was a woman to remain consistent. Not a transwoman or transgender, as those labels are halfway to what the police did in erasing her identity and her being. They erode what she was able to accomplish. We call her “she” because she was a woman.
The crux of the matter is that Transgender should be recognized as an identity, displayed via appearance, role and behavior, chosen for a variety of reasons. Transsexual on the other hand is a painful condition which people attempt to alleviate and cure as fully as they can. Some may choose to be Transgender (or gay or lesbian or Green Party), and some may be labeled as such if they do not appear to conform, but none choose to be Transsexual.
Speculatively, including Ms. White’s gender history into the definition of transgender may have been the impetus for her murder. It would seem very likely the cause of the appropriation by police of the right to determine her sex and gender. So, the murder and misreporting likely had the same cause, that being insecurity regarding sex and gender and self identity. Not Ms. White’s, but that of the murderer, the police and the reporter(s). It’s pervasive in our culture and must be changed at that level if things are to change.
But here’s the rub:
Without the bigotry of the police and reporting, we’d never know about the bigotry that likely caused the murder itself. Which is the more dangerous?
Stooopit paste error“Some may choose to be Transgender (or gay or lesbian or Green Party)”
Duh. s/b
“Some may choose to be Transgender (or socially-politically gay or lesbian or Green Party)”
The minor point there being that until full equality in both law and hearts is achieved, many of us that are gay, lesbian or liberal choose sometimes to fight battles and not always conform to an oppressive (or at the least cis-hetero normalized) society. It’s a subtle but different issue from that of transsexuality, where much of the battle is between an individual and their own body.
Thanks AUTUMN… a keeper. am pretty sure I sent your last column like this to my local newspaper editor.For those who haven't you should consider it….and see comment below listing guide to appropriate media terminology for allqueer folk.
It matters to usIt matters to you. It matters to me. It doesn’t matter to them, so you can’t successfully use it as a shield against being labelled as TG – by them.
Look, I’ve gathered together more actual data, more actual proof, than anyone else I know. I’m not a researcher, I’m a collator. Good at it too, according to some of the genuine researchers. Diamond. Ecker. Drantz. Italiano. etc.
But while I consider the proof to be beyond reasonable doubt now when it comes to TS, I know of no evidence either way when it comes to TG. Stating dogmatically that TG people do not have any neural anomalies is just as un-evidenced as stating that they do. The difference may, I repeat may be one of degree, in at least some cases – we just don’t know.
If this whole thing is biological, anatomical, as we both agree that it must be, well, biology and anatomy are not binary, not sharply divided. They’re blurry round the edges, and in order to do experimentation, one must pick subjects that are at the extreme ends, at least at first.
When it comes to self-identification, I happen to fit the sharp, clearly distinguishable binary model really well. Others don’t though, and although I’m a monster of arrogance and egotism, even I can’t Universalise my own situation to coerce others into fitting into it.
I started out doing this, by the way. But I can’t ignore facts when they hit me over the head often enough. So my opinion changed. I reserve the right for it to change again as new data comes in, too.
Style Guides are not itAs much as I like the idea of styleguides for media, I’m afraid this is not the problem. People who have issues with trans folks will ofetn show their hate by trying to take ownership of our identity. My secret has always been to be as proactive as possible and define my identity before it can be taken away. We need to be always on top of this and keep pushing our own media.