Thanks for publishing my photo AND listening, @DailyDot, in “What Does Transgender Mean, and How Do People Transition?”

Trans Solidarity Rally and March 55436
Trans Solidarity Rally and March 55436 (View on Flickr.com)

Thank you for publishing my photo DailyDot (@DailyDot) in the piece referenced below.

What does transgender mean? From understanding the gender binary to being a good ally, here’s what you need to know about transitionining.

Source: What Does Transgender Mean, and How Do People Transition?

Thank you also for listening when I reviewed the piece and found that it contained non-standard, non-science-based terminology. Through a brief email exchange I discovered that the publication is using the excellent GLAAD style guide for LGBTQ issues, and was also open to removing non-scientific terminology (which was actually not covered in the style guide, GLAAD has a more comprehensive reference here). Non-scientific term is now removed from the piece and it reads much more accurately.

My hope is that other publications, like @NPR, like @USAToday will behave in a similar fashion in the future. In this recent interaction related to a USAToday front page story, I was essentially told “I didn’t have time to write an accurate front page story, so I wrote an inaccurate one instead.”

Click here to see the entire exchange. A review of this story a month later shows that it’s still inaccurate.

I wrote a longer piece about this and included this helpful quote regarding bias (explicit and unconscious):

Notice your defensiveness and accept the discomfort of unlearning and relearning. To be competent in this arena is the same as learning to be competent in anything else. It requires a desire to know, motivation to become informed, opportunities to practice and the willingness to correct your mistakes.

A few thoughts about gender equality and respect in the 21st Century

I believe people can do better, and they are, because the world is learning to love better, and a more loving world means more long, healthy lives. Thanks DailyDot.

Ted Eytan, MD