Christine Haughney at the New York Times reports:

National Public Radio will continue for now to refer to Private Manning as “he,” according to a spokeswoman, Anna Bross. “Until Bradley Manning’s desire to have his gender changed actually physically happens, we will be using male-related pronouns to identify him,” she said.

What the fuck, NPR? This is some draconian bullshit, right here. Gender is not just physical. And anyway, the content of Chelsea Manning’s underwear is none of NPR’s business. Is an editorial board going to demand photographs of her crotch before they agree to switch pronouns? I can understand some news organizations having some difficulty yesterday as they transitioned from using “he” to “she” with Chelsea Manning. An announcement of this scale has never happened before, and I don’t think it’s happened to these kinds of reporters—the ones covering breaking national and international news (thanks to Chaz Bono, entertainment and gossip reporters are actually ahead of the curve on this issue). But for a whole organization to demand proof of a physical change in gender before they respect someone’s wishes is more than just institutional ignorance; it’s outright aggression.

18 replies on “NPR Says It Will Continue to Refer to Chelsea Manning as “He” Until Her Gender Is “Actually Physically” Changed”

  2. A PC freak out. Can’t wait to hear Bab’s take on it.

    I think continuing to use “he” is fine until he is allowed to start presenting as a female through dress, etc. Which the prison system should allow him to do if he wants.

    Frankly, I’m not sure why this is news. Manning’s case is about whistle blowing and national security, and for all intents and purposes it was resolved as a “new story” when he was sentenced. His/her gender is important to him/her but irrelevant as national news.

  3. “the content of Chelsea Manning’s underwear is none of NPR’s business”

    By the logic, you shouldn’t care that NPR chooses to refer to Manning as “he”. His crime, the topic NPR is covering, was committed by Bradley Manning, a male in the armed services. It seems reasonable to remain consistent. If Manning had committed this crime as a pre-opp man living as a woman named Chelsea, who was in the military as “Chelsea Manning,” I’m guessing they’d refer to him as her.

  4. It’s not a “PC freak out,” it’s actually incredibly disrespectful and harmful to both Manning and the trans* community as a whole. You do not have to get gender reassignment surgery to identify as female or to have a preferred pronoun you would like others to use. Trans* individuals constantly have to deal with people accusing them of not “really” being male or female, either because of their outside appearance or their genitalia. The fact that NPR refuses to refer to Manning using female pronouns, even after she has changed how she self-identifies or perhaps even changes her legal gender (which you do not need surgery to do), is ridiculous and shows a serious lack in understanding of the LGBTQ community and real issues people have to deal with everyday.

  6. At least if he wants to live his life as a chick there will be plenty of people in prison who help and support him in his mission.

  7. “…real issues people have to deal with everyday.”

    Actually, almost no one has to deal with this issue every day. It is a vanishingly small part of the population.

    I don’t want him to be discriminated against, and hope he can live however he wants (short of tax payers paying for expensive surgery while he is in prison). It’s just silly to act like it will be as easy as flipping a switch. Some people are going to keep calling you “he” for awhile. It’s to be expected.

  10. “Actually, almost no one has to deal with this issue every day. It is a vanishingly small part of the population.”
    Who is a vanishing small part of the population? Transgender people or people being disrespectful/hurtful towards transgender people? Because by my count it is neither.

  11. ROM: If it was in the noon hour on OPB, that was Sara Mirk of Bitch Media using “she”. Anyone from Bitch Media is going to use whatever pronoun he/she/it wants to be referred to.

  12. Holly, I was referring to transgender people. It is a very small percentage of the population. Which doesn’t make it okay to discriminate against them. Just that there aren’t armies of people “dealing with this every day.”

    “just this morning I heard people on NPR refer to Chelsea as “her.””

    Are we all on a first name basis now?

  14. I don’t know how many transgendered people there are out there, but if I were to guess based just off reading the Mercury, it’s roughly between 35-60% of of the population.

  16. Jesus fuck people, he has got a cock.
    Showing an old photo in drag doesn’t make him a woman.
    Paul Constant has once again shown why I tend not to bother with his articles.
    What does that tell you that NPR (!) is still referring to him as a man? Far cry from FOX news, right?

  18. “Are we all on a first name basis now?”

    Yes. In the future, gendered pronouns won’t even exist. We’ll just always refer to each other by our names, no matter how awkward the sentences are.

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