Cowardly Editors Allowed Themselves To Be Bullied Into Requiring Inaccurate Pronouns

News media organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom believe it is factually accurate and ethical to refer to people by the pronouns they prefer. The Associated Press Stylebook says that it recognizes “the need for a pronoun for people who don’t identify as a he or a she” and instructs journalists to use neither “biological sex” nor “both sexes,” since not everyone identifies with male or female. The BBC’s news style guide states that “We generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so.” In fact, it is wrong for journalists to use inaccurate pronouns. Pronouns in English carry information about sex, and readers understand “she” to mean a female. A man who identifies as a woman remains male, because sex is encoded in our DNA and no amount of hormones or surgery can change that.