Via Questioning Transphobia, TransGriot covers yet a-fucking-nother case of a transwoman being murdered. OH WAIT, NO, sorry, a MAN who was BORN A MAN whose legal name is A MAN’S NAME was murdered, and HE HE HE HE HE just happened to be a mid-transition transwomen. Details!
Now, there are plenty of folks out there who really can’t understand why this is horrifically disgustingly offensive. I’d assume the “journalist” responsible for the article linked by the above certainly doesn’t. Or …
As TransGriot points out, the AP Stylebook? The “Bible” of journalists? Says you identify people by their identified gender. Not the gender you choose to assign them because you’re a bigoted asshat.
What I think this should demonstrate, to those who need the point made clear, is this is deliberate. This isn’t someone going, “Oh, I’m confused about which pronouns to use” – because if they were actually confused, one might think the AP Stylebook would be where they would turn, where it’s spelled out nice and clearly,
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.
And then the writer could go, “Excellent! Question answered.”
This article writer didn’t, just like too-fucking-many writers before him or her. Because there is no interest in what the guidelines say, there’s no interest in the most accurate portrayal of a story: the story is “Freak Got Killed, Watch Out, Freaks, Your Kind Is Not Safe”.
Well, until Nikki Williams’ killer(s) are found and charged, when the story will become “Victim Was Freak And Probably Sex Worker, Guys Forced To Murder Victim To Defend Institution of Masculinity”.
There is not enough *headdesk* in the world for this shit.
I was gonna say, I could have sworn AP style has gone with identified gender for years now (ever since I did journalism in high school). Fuckers.
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