On Not Being Newsworthy

[bcholmes]

From an article someone forwarded to me.

"Never have pronouns been so provocative."

So begins a column in the San Francisco Chronicle about the difficulties journalists had writing about Gwen Araujo, the transgender teenager killed in Newark, California, in October. In their quest for accuracy, reporters stumbled over pronouns, some calling Gwen he, some she, while others dodged the issue entirely by referring to her as simply "Araujo."

As the Chronicle columnist put it, "Our problems with pronoun use are just one manifestation of lives not written about."

She's right. Unless they are killed, transgender people almost never make the news.