The Post will be asking sources their preferred pronouns in an effort to report more accurately.
News organizations, journalists and copy editors have been overlooking a crucial fact for years: Not everyone identifies as "he" or "she."
In the past, The Post has avoided the pronoun they, when used to describe one person, by explaining it in an editor's note on the top of a story or not using it at all. And sources’ names were always capitalized, regardless of an individual’s preference, in favor of grammatical correctness.
We, the 2015-16 copy editing staff slot editors, are putting an end to this last name, always-capitalized policy. We will use the pronouns (he, she, they, ze, etc.) based on sources’ identities. And names will only be capitalized if that’s what the person prefers.
To make that clear to readers, we will explain in stories when a person identifies outside of the gender binary and/or does not capitalize their name.
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A common source for Post stories is delfin bautista, director of Ohio University’s LGBT Center and columnist for The Post, who identifies as Two-Spirit and with the pronoun "they." bautista does not capitalize their name, following in the tradition of authors and activists such as bell hooks, as a “visual way of minimizing ourselves so that the work we do is what is maximized,” bautista said in an email.
OU has recently taken steps to ensure students and employees are able to go by the pronouns they identify with and the name they prefer.
“Similar to everything, (one’s pronouns are) unique to the individual. Some individuals — queer folk, trans folk — who don’t identify as he or she or do identify as both he and she,” bautista said. “And with the pronoun they being inclusive reflects both.”
Washington Post columnist Steven Petrow wrote, “Language is about respect, and we should all do our best to recognize how people wish to be identified.”
We agree.
As a news organization, we have a responsibility to accurately depict the information we have gathered. As the copy editing staff, we believe that also includes how we identify sources.
One’s identity will always trump supposed grammatical correctness.
This column represents the opinion of The Post’s Copy Chief Olivia Hitchcock and slot editors Rachel Danner, Hannah Debenham, Anna Gibbs and Cara Hanson. What do you think of our policy change? Email us at oh271711@ohio.edu.
