@ashleycdye Ashley Dye is a copy editor and editor of tbt*'s Coast is Queer.
English singer Sam Smith now uses they/them pronouns.
It’s a simple, but profound, statement that gives more crucial visibility to people living outside of the gender binary. Yet some of my fellow journalists — people entrusted to routinely break down complex topics — found it nearly impossible to write and say.
On Friday, months after talking publicly about their non-binary identity, Smith posted on social media to explain their change to they/them pronouns, rather than he/him.
"After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am,” they wrote.
As a queer, non-binary journalist, I was thrilled — to see another high-profile person similar to me and in anticipation of the education and conversations on gender this would encourage. What later came across the wires from the Associated Press chilled my blood. In its initial report Friday, the AP referred to Smith as he/him throughout. The first line began: “Sam Smith has declared his pronouns ‘they/them’ ...”
“We are beyond debating the grammatical: leading dictionaries and style guides accept the use of the singular, gender-neutral “they” and remind us that it has been used in the English language — from well-known authors to everyday people — for centuries.”
I was in the room at ACES: The Society for Editing’s 2017 conference when the AP Stylebook — what many editors in the industry view as the “journalist’s bible” — announced it would allow for the use of the gender-neutral, singular pronouns they/them/their to refer to people. The crowd was ecstatic; finally, the stylebook would recognize the simple truth of how some people experience gender, not just the majority. Of course, the move came with a weak caveat: AP Style would prefer reporters to write around it, unless the person’s pronouns are necessary to the story.
Yet the AP did not follow its own style guide in the Smith report — a story that existed solely to talk about their pronouns. Crucially, many news outlets across the United States, and world, rely on republishing the AP and, given staff and time restraints, likely did not fix this obvious error.
The thought of this inaccurate report spreading made me sick. Not only did it delegitimize non-binary folks — part of a group facing discrimination from the government, in education and employment, housing and more — but also it failed to educate cisgender readers (people who identify as their gender assigned at birth) on Smith. In this, the AP and other outlets with similar reckless reporting gave credibility to people who purposefully ignore who they are. Read more via Tampa Bay Times