Teh One Who Knocks
01-18-2017, 12:48 PM
By Jillian Kay Melchior - Heat Street
http://i.imgur.com/Su8kB0hh.jpg
A gruesome California murder has sparked an unlikely battle over pronouns.
Earlier this month, police arrested 22-year-old Berkeley student Pablo Gomez Jr. in connection with stabbing near the prestigious university that left one woman dead and another seriously injured. As local media covered the story, they learned that Gomez, a well-known campus activist, prefers “they/them” pronouns, which reporters began to use.
“We decided to use ‘they’ for Pablo Gomez Jr because that is Gomez’ s preferred gender pronoun,” said Frances Dinkelspiel, co-founder of Berkeleyside. “It’s as simple as that. We have used ‘they’ in other stories about non-binary/genderqueer people.”
And Andrea Platten, managing editor of the Daily Californian, noted the newspaper adopted “they” as a singular pronoun last February.
“Gomez, specifically, chooses to identify as ‘they,’ and we believe that any person’s preferred pronoun should be honored, regardless of whether they are accused of committing a crime,” Platten told Heat Street. “Using someone’s preferred gender pronoun is a basic courtesy, and the modern English vernacular has already adopted ‘they.’ It requires very little effort on behalf of a newspaper to adopt it as well.”
http://i.imgur.com/uvzYWOs.jpg
Emilie Inman
Gomez, who is awaiting charges, is suspected of stabbing to death 27-year-old Emilie Inman, a nature program and middle-school science instructor. He’s also awaiting charges related to the stabbing another woman who survived the attack.
Gomez’s case immediately grabbed the attention of the right-leaning media: In addition to using gender-nonconforming pronouns, the student was a Latinx/Chicanx major and an environmental activist.
Even Ann Coulter weighed in.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Berkeley student arrested <a href="https://t.co/cRvyUqxjZ5">https://t.co/cRvyUqxjZ5</a>. Article calls Gomez "they." Did newspapers call John Hinkley "Jodi Foster's boyfriend"?</p>— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/817974722654773248">January 8, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The pronoun backlash was immediate. A New York City-based, gender-nonconforming chess teacher penned an op-ed defending using “they/them” pronouns for Gomez.
“While some may use this tragedy as an opportunity to mobilize queerphobia, I would insist that one can mourn the loss of a life without taking away Gomez’s right to their gender,” Julia Schwartz wrote in Berkeleyside. “Part of understanding and treating gender-queer people as people means accepting that some of us may not be good people, but all people should have the right to gender self-determination.”
Gomez will appear in court Tuesday morning. According to the Alameda County sheriff’s office, he was arrested on suspicion of “willful, deliberate, premeditated” attempted murder and murder.
Berkeleyside reports that mental health issues “likely played a role in Friday’s violence.” Gomez Jr. was a prolix writer online about queer and transgender issues and was highly energized about issues related to police brutality. His short bio on Twitter reads “nonbinary, pan xicanx who loves dr pepper.”
http://i.imgur.com/Su8kB0hh.jpg
A gruesome California murder has sparked an unlikely battle over pronouns.
Earlier this month, police arrested 22-year-old Berkeley student Pablo Gomez Jr. in connection with stabbing near the prestigious university that left one woman dead and another seriously injured. As local media covered the story, they learned that Gomez, a well-known campus activist, prefers “they/them” pronouns, which reporters began to use.
“We decided to use ‘they’ for Pablo Gomez Jr because that is Gomez’ s preferred gender pronoun,” said Frances Dinkelspiel, co-founder of Berkeleyside. “It’s as simple as that. We have used ‘they’ in other stories about non-binary/genderqueer people.”
And Andrea Platten, managing editor of the Daily Californian, noted the newspaper adopted “they” as a singular pronoun last February.
“Gomez, specifically, chooses to identify as ‘they,’ and we believe that any person’s preferred pronoun should be honored, regardless of whether they are accused of committing a crime,” Platten told Heat Street. “Using someone’s preferred gender pronoun is a basic courtesy, and the modern English vernacular has already adopted ‘they.’ It requires very little effort on behalf of a newspaper to adopt it as well.”
http://i.imgur.com/uvzYWOs.jpg
Emilie Inman
Gomez, who is awaiting charges, is suspected of stabbing to death 27-year-old Emilie Inman, a nature program and middle-school science instructor. He’s also awaiting charges related to the stabbing another woman who survived the attack.
Gomez’s case immediately grabbed the attention of the right-leaning media: In addition to using gender-nonconforming pronouns, the student was a Latinx/Chicanx major and an environmental activist.
Even Ann Coulter weighed in.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Berkeley student arrested <a href="https://t.co/cRvyUqxjZ5">https://t.co/cRvyUqxjZ5</a>. Article calls Gomez "they." Did newspapers call John Hinkley "Jodi Foster's boyfriend"?</p>— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/817974722654773248">January 8, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The pronoun backlash was immediate. A New York City-based, gender-nonconforming chess teacher penned an op-ed defending using “they/them” pronouns for Gomez.
“While some may use this tragedy as an opportunity to mobilize queerphobia, I would insist that one can mourn the loss of a life without taking away Gomez’s right to their gender,” Julia Schwartz wrote in Berkeleyside. “Part of understanding and treating gender-queer people as people means accepting that some of us may not be good people, but all people should have the right to gender self-determination.”
Gomez will appear in court Tuesday morning. According to the Alameda County sheriff’s office, he was arrested on suspicion of “willful, deliberate, premeditated” attempted murder and murder.
Berkeleyside reports that mental health issues “likely played a role in Friday’s violence.” Gomez Jr. was a prolix writer online about queer and transgender issues and was highly energized about issues related to police brutality. His short bio on Twitter reads “nonbinary, pan xicanx who loves dr pepper.”