http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315965/Transgender-homecoming-king-Oakleigh-Reed-dethroned.html

The rules should have been bent, because clearly, the people wanted it, so nobody would have had any problems with it.

What an amazingly petty thing to do, fetching out the rulebook for something like this.

Yeah, "petty" seems to cover it nicely. By all accounts it sounds like he's been quite popular and treated well up until this point, too.

I think it's great that his fellow classmates supported him so much. It's a great sign of social tolerance in the world.

I'm surprised the school made such a big deal out of it, though. I mean, does it really matter? His classmates wanted him to be the homecoming king; does it really matter if he was born with a vagina?

Quote from: Pundit on September 29, 2010, 11:23:46 PM
I think it's great that his fellow classmates supported him so much. It's a great sign of social tolerance in the world.

I'm surprised the school made such a big deal out of it, though. I mean, does it really matter? His classmates wanted him to be the homecoming king; does it really matter if he was born with a vagina?

I think some school faculty are overzealous about there jobs because they want their position to feel more important. 

Annnd of course the Daily mail use the wrong pronouns. ->-bleeped-<-heads I hope there dicks fall off then I can salt the wound calling them "she"

Pebbles Would you care to amend your post slightly and tone down your unparliamentary language please. We do not encourage the use of profanities on the site even if, on this occasion, the use of the term Sh****** does seem almost justified so I am not actually taking any official action at this stage. 

But as a serious point users are kindly reminded that we need to keep language within certain limits even when dealing with imbeciles like the press!

What I find also appalling about this is that it made the news in the UK, but not so here in the US.

Quote from: girl_ashley on September 30, 2010, 01:07:28 PM
What I find also appalling about this is that it made the news in the UK, but not so here in the US.

There is a lot of transgender stuff going on here in the media at the moment. On the TV, a programme called "Holyoaks" had a young FtM coming to terms with here gender identity, the newspapers, adverts for cars containing a dad in drag, etc, etc. It seems the media are obsessed with things transgender. Some good and some bad. So I'm not surprised its been picked up by the Mail. It is also an indication of public attitudes to us as well which is changing/changed for the good.

Stardust

Quote from: girl_ashley on September 30, 2010, 01:07:28 PM
What I find also appalling about this is that it made the news in the UK, but not so here in the US.

It's been covered a lot in the US news media, check out News>Education section https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,253.0.html of the forum, we've posted a number of articles about it the last few days.

Zythyra (News Admin)

Quote from: pebbles on September 30, 2010, 03:16:33 AM
Annnd of course the Daily mail use the wrong pronouns. ->-bleeped-<-heads I hope there dicks fall off then I can salt the wound calling them "she"

Your anger is misplaced. The story is in no way biased or prejudicial. It's actually told very straightforwardly with no attempt to sensationalize or moralize. If anything it's sympathetic to Oakleigh Reed. The reason Oakleigh is referred to as 'she' has nothing to do with anyone being a sh*thead and everything to do with clarity. The story is about a transgender FTM being denied a school title because in the eyes of the school 'she' is enrolled as a female student ... my guess is that Oakleigh is legally a 'she' too. So to make it plain to readers what the fuss is about, the writer sticks to that female pronoun. But you will notice that in the quotes from Oakleigh's mother, Oakleigh is referred to as 'he' and that has not been changed.

This is just a case of a reporter trying to tell a story in a way that makes it as easy as possible for readers to grasp. Of course the choice of pronouns is vitally important to TS/TG individuals, but those sensitivites are not the reporter's prime concern and if I were his editor I'd agree.

The most important thing here is that millions of Daily Mail readers get the chance to see a story about a TG kid succeeding, being liked, voted for and defended by their fellow students, being supported by their parents and being given a very fair treatment in the paper.

Surely those positive messages matter far, far more than the odd pronoun here or there.

Quote from: Carlita on September 30, 2010, 04:49:32 PM
Your anger is misplaced. The story is in no way biased or prejudicial. It's actually told very straightforwardly with no attempt to sensationalize or moralize. If anything it's sympathetic to Oakleigh Reed. The reason Oakleigh is referred to as 'she' has nothing to do with anyone being a sh*thead and everything to do with clarity. The story is about a transgender FTM being denied a school title because in the eyes of the school 'she' is enrolled as a female student ... my guess is that Oakleigh is legally a 'she' too. So to make it plain to readers what the fuss is about, the writer sticks to that female pronoun. But you will notice that in the quotes from Oakleigh's mother, Oakleigh is referred to as 'he' and that has not been changed.

This is just a case of a reporter trying to tell a story in a way that makes it as easy as possible for readers to grasp. Of course the choice of pronouns is vitally important to TS/TG individuals, but those sensitivites are not the reporter's prime concern and if I were his editor I'd agree.

The most important thing here is that millions of Daily Mail readers get the chance to see a story about a TG kid succeeding, being liked, voted for and defended by their fellow students, being supported by their parents and being given a very fair treatment in the paper.

Surely those positive messages matter far, far more than the odd pronoun here or there.

I think if they'd just done something like wrote, "...he (as he prefers to be referred by)...", the first time they used a pronoun for him they could have continued it from there and any intelligent reader would have understood it. But I agree that it doesn't necessarily make them awful people. Not everyone is very used to knowing how to address trans issues at this point and their ignorance is a lot of the times no fault of their own. I think they were still trying to be respectful to the best of their knowledge, although I do hope that they better educate themselves in the future.

Eugh both the articles use of pronouns and ridiculous phrases like "she wants to be a man now and is having a sex swap operation next year" and the ignorant comments at the bottom make me sad for the world.

The rude and intolerant comments at the bottom of that page make me almost more sad then the actual article. It's sad how intolerant people can be...