Associated Press recently announced its acceptance of the gender pronouns “they”, “them” and “their” when referring to nonbinary people — a move hailed as a positive step in securing greater visibility for queer identities.

Already in effect online, the change will be included in the 2017 AP Stylebook on May 31, regarded as the template for most major newsrooms in the United States.

The entry reads: “In stories about people who identify as neither male nor female or ask not to be referred to as he/she/him/her: Use the person’s name in place of a pronoun, or otherwise reword the sentence, whenever possible. If they/them/their use is essential, explain in the text that the person prefers a gender-neutral pronoun. Be sure that the phrasing does not imply more than one person.”

Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird says: “This is a significant step forward. When one of the major wire news services does this, making it more reflective of the audiences they speak to, it provides an opportunity to advocate and say to other media houses: ‘Have you seen this?’ It might sound like a small thing, but organisations could now approach their media as to whether they will be following suit and if not, why not?

“Also, it’s a small, easy change that can be implemented. And one which has the potential to be a good conscientising tool, because this is not language that is common in the media. Although I imagine the Mail & Guardian has discussed these things and has a policy on it.”

Although this may be true, the M&G is by no means above reproach. After being featured in this newspaper’s Friday section, artist Dean Hutton — who identifies as nonbinary and prefers the pronoun “they” — took issue with what they felt to be an erasure of their identity. The article saw all Hutton’s preferred gender pronouns replaced with references to “the artist” or “Hutton”.

Following a telephonic apology from the arts editor, however, Hutton now says: “It was handled incredibly well; the way which she spoke to me. So, something that could have been experienced in a violent way was mitigated by an editor who understands what it is like to be misidentified.”

Bird says that, given the sensitive nature of reporting on gender identity, errors are bound to creep in.

“What is clear from research we have conducted into sexual orientation, gender identity and gender is that even those in the media who are aware of these issues perpetuate some of these stereotypes. And when it is pointed out to them, they would say something along the lines of, ‘Wow, we’ve got to change that’.”

For Hutton, the media needs to be more mindful. “In general, journalists, subeditors and editors sit in an incredibly powerful position, with no experience of being othered. Because of this position, they are willing to let a set of essentially random style rules overrule an individual’s dignity and right to dignity in the way in which they wish to be addressed and identify,” they say.

The problematic ways in which queer people are represented in the media goes further than an unwillingness to break away from these “essentially random style rules”.

Anastacia Tomson, a transgender woman and author, says: “I’ve been the subject of numerous headlines suggesting that I was ‘born in the wrong body’ or a ‘woman in a man’s body’. My body is neither ‘wrong’, nor is it a ‘man’s body’. I’m a woman, and it is my body. It is perhaps unique and different to some other bodies, but it is nonetheless my body.

“Those sorts of phrases strip us of agency over our bodies and serve only to reduce our personal histories and experiences to stereotypical, reductive and inaccurate concepts.

“Too often, those who are retelling our stories will either twist the narratives to fit their own preconceptions, or will simply be insensitive to the nuances and complexities that surround transgender identity.”

Clinical psychologist Itumeleng Mamabolo says: “The heteronormative way of engaging with people is problematic because it assumes that there is a norm and everyone is measured by that standard. Making assumptions about somebody and writing that they were, for example, ‘born in the wrong body’ implies that there is somehow a ‘right body’ to have been born in. For someone trying to come to terms with themselves as a complex being, this will cause added distress and trauma.”

In a bid to prevent these incidents from recurring, Tomson says she has taken to “briefing journalists beforehand and insisting they read a style guide on appropriate language for discussing trans issues prior to undertaking interviews”.

The style guide Tomson refers to is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad) Media Reference Guide, “to be used by journalists reporting for mainstream media outlets and by creators in entertainment media who want to tell the stories of LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning] people fairly and accurately”.

Glaad chief executive and president Sarah Kate Ellis writes in her introduction to the reference guide: “Media coverage of LGBTQ people has become increasingly multi-dimensional, reflecting both the diversity of the community and the growing visibility of LGBTQ people’s families and relationships.”

Tomson says: “I think that although representation might have improved in recent years, there is still a long way to go. Queer is still seen as outlandish, deviant or sensational. Too often, portrayals of queer identity lose the complexity and humanity of the individuals involved, and seek to simplify the pertinent issues so that they fit into the often flawed mainstream idea of what constitutes queer.”

Shaun Westley, a reader of The Daily Voice, laid a complaint with the press ombudsman in July last year against the Western Cape-based newspaper, after the paper ran a front-page headline that said: “Maak die moffie vrek”.

Westley says “the paper’s argument was that they were speaking the language of their readers. But my argument was that language, in itself, is a tool of violence and that these micro-aggressions ultimately shape people’s perceptions of others and how they classify them.”

His bid to have the newspaper apologise for having “perpetuated the dehumanisation of the gay community” was ultimately dismissed.

Athena Marsden is a 23-year-old transgender woman who, after being interviewed for a feature in a local newspaper, says: “I was quite shocked at the way in which my transness was positioned in the article and how there was a blatant disregard for gender identity.

“Prior to the interview, the journalist and I had spoken about how to refer to me, but he chose to write about me in a way that made me feel objectified.

“I can’t really remember if I approached the paper about the article as I was in the thick of exams, but to a degree I felt that my complaint wouldn’t be taken seriously. I think it’s really easy to feel reduced to ‘that angry trans woman’.”

South African media houses may not be perfect in their coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) people, but Bird says significant progress has been made.

“In South Africa we’ve improved quite a bit. In the late 1990s, there were the stereotypical portrayals of queer people, you know, marching through the streets during Pride parades, wearing women’s clothes or whatever. But this in itself was a major shift from how reporting had been done before.

“More recently there was the shift towards victimisation. So a strong focus on reports of corrective rapes and murders.

“Still, South Africa is remarkably progressive in that we are generally open to talking about these issues. In many other African countries there is a reluctance; it is generally seen as deviant behaviour.”

Delane Kalembo is the programmes officer at the organisation African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), which has been conducting sensitisation workshops with journalists in West African countries for the past four years.

“We initiated the programme in that region because we found that journalists there always reported on homosexuality in derogatory ways. So we undertook work with media organisations in sensitisation workshops on the issues LGBTIQ people face. For example, when referring to someone who is intersex, not to use the word ‘hermaphrodite’. In this way, we are trying to work towards ensuring a greater humaneness in the way they report on queer issues.”

According to Kalembo, the programme has yielded the desired results. “We monitored how they frame these issues in their reports and there has been a complete improvement. We are now hoping to replicate this in other regions as well as speaking to education institutions to have a module around LGBTIQ sensitivity included in journalists’ training.”

The organisation might have their work cut out for them, because not everyone is pleased with the work they are undertaking.

“At the start of one of our workshops, the police came in and ordered us to stop. They said we could not come into the country to influence their journalists. We eventually continued the series of workshops, but had to be extra cautious about having any possible snitches in the sessions.”

Ignoring the state-sponsored threats to their work, Kalembo says: “We also have civil society organisations in the region engage with media around breaking stories and what should be picked up in those stories, because so often only the sensational is picked up on. The violation of those persons’ rights were never at the heart of the story.”

For Tomson, this kind of active engagement is needed to ensure accurate representation of queer people in the media.

“We really need straight and cis allies to heed the call and to support the idea that prejudice can never be accepted or tolerated. I think it’s important to work at dismantling the idea that there is something broken, immoral or wrong with queer identity because, in many instances, this is the fundamental starting point from which stigma and prejudice grows,” she says.

“Active protection of human rights, liberties and freedoms for people — especially those in minority groups, such as queer folk — must be a prerequisite.

“We also need to carefully interrogate who is telling these stories. When it comes to matters of queer identity, those best qualified to speak are those who are queer themselves. It all comes down to agency. We don’t need to be patronised or condescended to; what we need is a platform for our own voices to be heard.”

Carl Collison is the other Foundation’s Rainbow Fellow at the Mail & Guardian

When media and state combine forces

Diane Bakuraira is a gender non-conforming Ugandan activist who says that, after being outed in the Ugandan press, her life “was never normal again”.

“It happened after I told my story about being a gender nonconforming person living in Uganda to a British newspaper. The Ugandan media saw the article after it was posted online. But they twisted the story completely, changing my story to something else. The impact of that was really disturbing for me, because before that — before the article and the [Anti-Homosexuality] Bill coming into effect — I had always lived my life openly. People never really cared how I identified.

“But after that article, my life was never normal again. I lost some of my friends because of the lies this paper wrote about me. I had to change my movements, switching from using public transport — which, of course, costs me a lot more.

“Emotionally, too, it has really tainted me. I had to stay away from work and seek refuge, because I was attacked one night on my way home from work. They beat me very badly, shouting that they knew the kind of work I do and where I work; that I must move out of that area because they don’t appreciate my kind of people living there. I eventually had to relocate; move out of an area I had felt safe in before that.”

A report titled From Torment to Tyranny — Enhanced persecution in Uganda following the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 found that, in 2012, 19 cases of persecution perpetrated against Ugandan LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) people were reported.

This figure had, from December 20 2013 to May 1 2014, rocketed to 162.

This, the report noted, “represents an increase of between 750% and 1 900% on previous years — an increase which can only be explained by the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and the virulently homophobic atmosphere this has engendered in Uganda”.

The virulently homophobic atmosphere is exacerbated by mainstream media, which Bakuraira refers to as “hatemongers” — a sentiment shared by Mutyaba Gloriah, programmes officer at queer rights organisation, Freedom and Roam Uganda.

“Media in Uganda has misrepresented us on so many occasions, causing not only government but the general public to hate us. During the period of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, there was a lot of media outing during that time. The tabloids that were publishing these stories and outing people were doing it for financial gain, because that story trended for about a week — every day there were different people being outed,” says Gloriah.

Although the Bill was overturned based on a technicality, Gloriah says: “We still face the consequences of that Bill. And this is where the media comes in, again: when the Bill was passed, the president made a statement at a press conference announcing this. But when it was nullified, he didn’t come out and clarify that. There was no press to cover that. So there are people who think the Bill still exists and so continue to suppress us and our work.”

Bakuraira adds: “This is why we never share our stories with media here. They always twist our stories. We just don’t trust mainstream media.”

Carl Collison is the Other Foundation‘s Rainbow Fellow at the Mail & Guardian



