The Australian news source that was quoted in the OP was very strange to read.
While it mentioned ‘transition’ once, at no point did it use the word ‘transgender’. Meaning the reader has to work it out for themselves and the newspaper looks really a lot like it’s making a deal out of a materially relevant status (being trans) that it’s actually scared to name or that the paper thinks it’s offensive to name or (worst case scenario) the newspaper has decided it is inaccurate or untrue to name a trans person as a trans person.
But this type of forced journalistic speech and exceptionalism for a specific group of people- (putting trans people in a special category for how they can be written about, while pretending not to see this is being done and and refusing to name and acknowledge it is being done), is wrong because it forces pretending on the reader.
It is not OK for journalists to validate preferences to the extent of forcing mass pretending.
Also, journalists putting groups in a special category on the apparent basis that they can’t handle reading realistic factual description of themselves, is the exact opposite of being genuinely inclusive (and it is highly debatable if being inclusive is actually the job of journalism anyway- I want journalists to provide me with facts without bias or prejudice- not to provide universal validation which actively obscures reported facts...)
I do feel that journalists and TRA lobbyist organisations or anyone else doing this kind of patting on the head should be pulled up every time they do this in their published work.
There’s nothing wrong with being trans, there’s nothing wrong with being a transman like the person in this article. There’s also nothing wrong with a journalist or whatever third party naming trans status or trans identity or belief or whatever as part of describing someone.
But there IS very much something wrong with newspapers pretending to be blind to obvious facts or differences that are absolutely apparent to everyone (ie when someone who feels they are a man, or even someone in the UK who has a GRC saying they ARE a man for the purposes of their legal documentation, also being pregnant).
This journalistic pretence is patronising to basically everyone, causes cognitive dissonance, confusion not being able to understand the story properly or promotes false beliefs that men and women can change sex (in any meaningful way beyond meaning confined to their legal paperwork).
OK so TLDR; it would be really helpful if any MNers who understand the law and journalism in the UK or FPFW or WPUK or LAWS or someone- to get journalists to report correctly and fairly on news stories reporting on transgender people.
An informed group could work collectively produce a set of guidelines for journalism bodies in the UK- NUJ etc (but there must be other relevant training ones, and the university based journalism degree courses and for anyone training a journalist?) and also the in-house codes of conduct for fully-fledged journalists like the BBC reporting guidelines. What we need are guidelines that spell out clearly- with evidence legal backing- that
-using opposite sex pronouns is only fine or required in certain circumstances
- that having a GRC doesnt mean the news story should describe the person without further context as being of the opposite sex to their biological sex
-that not having a GRC -if it isn’t known there is none- means automatically that
-specific guidance around reporting in this area on children
-etc. I am sure many of us would have ideas of principles or instances that need to be handled better
The women’s groups I mentioned above need not do this work themselves if they are not resourced to do so- but with their help we could start to lobby to get a journalists’ or legal body to do it (who would that be?) and then for them to write to all of the other journalists bodies, media outlets and everyone who trains journalists, to get them on board with developing and then implementing this new code or agreement about standards in media reporting in this area.
I am probably talking crap because I don’t know this area but I really hope someone will come along who does!