Comments on: The Advocate Misgenders Trans Woman

By: Monica R

Monica R — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 03:27:16 +0000

And Towleroad, the 2008 Weblog Awards Best LGBT award winner was also guilty of the same sin.

http://www.towleroad.com/2009/06/new-york-city-clerk-inadvertantly-marries-samesex-couple.html

By: Renee

Renee — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:55:56 +0000

This shit makes me sick. It is not that hard to use the wrong pronoun and the only reason to do is because the authors have wrongly privileged cisgender privilege. It’s purposeful and transpbobic,

By: Yolanda C.

Yolanda C. — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:18:50 +0000

So in the Advocate’s mind, presenting a woman as a cisman in print is going to strengthen the movement for same-sex marriage? Good luck with that one, dudes—as if the gay man (white cismale or not) will ever have any rights that the government is bound to respect. Meanwhile, Kimah Nelson is silenced once again, this time by a rag who’s supposed to be giving her a voice.

If the white boys who run the LGBT industry haven’t heard this enough times already, let’s say it again: neither money nor white cismale privilege is going to set queer people free.

By: L. E. Hairstylist

L. E. Hairstylist — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:09:08 +0000

You know, when I first read the headline and saw the picture, I thought, “Oh, I guess one of the guys dressed up as a woman to fool some people and somehow it worked; good for them.” But then I actually read the article, and I was confused. Because it sounded like the one was actually just a trans woman. But that didn’t make any sense, because why would this be called a same-sex marriage then? And then it hit me that an actual piece of journalism was equating a trans woman with a guy in a dress who “tricked” the county clerk, and I lost a little more faith in humanity.

Stay classy, Advocate.

By: PirateCapnLady

PirateCapnLady — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:22:42 +0000

365Gay did the same thing ( http://tiny.cc/fcEGS ); and even after many comments criticizing the OP (who is also their editor in chief), the “correction” is only mildly better. Though the first headline implied intentional fraud on the part of the Kimah, which you can still see in the full URL: “male-couple-snookers-nyc-into-officially-marrying-them”.

By: Ceridwen

Ceridwen — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:33:33 +0000

Not surprising, though still disgusting. This is, after all, the magazine that ran such wonderful headlines as “Gay vs. Trans” and “Gay is the New Black” in the past year, so expecting them to be good at covering anything other than the concerns of a select group of privileged white gay people is sadly asking too much (but then, that could be said for the whole damn movement anymore).

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:12:38 +0000

nicely said.

sad to see this sort of garbage coming from a publication that’s supposed to be trans-inclusive, but eh…nothing surprises me anymore.

By: Tera

Tera — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:50:41 +0000

Holy hell, that “Advocate” article is a steaming pile of fail.

The Advocate’s headline: “N.Y. State Unwittingly Marries ‘Same-Sex’ Couple”? (Because the whole trans woman-as-deceiver thing is totally not something cis people made up, of course not). And “Stenson views Nelson as a woman and does not consider himself gay”? Because how *your partner* “views” you is WAY more important than who you are, apparently.

Wow. Just…wow.

By: queen emily

queen emily — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:03:27 +0000

Well said.

By: educatedvagabond

educatedvagabond — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:49:10 +0000

When I had FTM or MTF friends in the process of transitioning, I asked what pronouns I should use. I did it because I did not want to make an assumption either way. The same with the name change. One said, “Use him.” Because he had begun t-shots and identified as a man. Another said, “I don’t know. I don’t know where I am yet.” I respectfully said, “Just let me know, I’ll use whatever you say.”

Identity is self-determined and we should respect who people are. No magazine should go against an individual’s wishes. That “The Advocate” would do that…well, I guess I don’t have the need to ever read that publication again.