Revisions to a handbook many U.S. news outlets consider “a bible” for grammar usage and style in news writing could signal a dramatic shift in the way the media reports on transgender issues.
The changes to the widely used Associated Press Stylebook adopt and promote the preferred language and ideology of the LGBTQ movement, which is sharply at odds with Catholic teaching on transgenderism.
As a result, a leading Catholic expert on gender issues warns that the changes disregard the inherent dignity of the human body and will have a major impact on society at large.
Abigail Favale, a professor of gender studies and feminist literary criticism at the University of Notre Dame, says the style book takes philosophical stands on issues under the guise of being a writing guide.
“It feels like both catechesis and guidelines — there’s a sense in which the reader is being taught what language to use, as well as how to view the topic,” she told CNA.
The Associated Press, an international news agency based in New York, now defines the word “transgender” in its style book as “a person whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned at birth.”
The AP also instructs writers to avoid terms like “biological sex,” “male or female hormones” and “sex change,” and replace them with such substitutes as “sex assigned at birth,” specific hormone names, and “gender transition.” The guide also deems certain words “slurs.” Using a transgender person’s previous name, or “deadname,” for example, would fall under this category.
The AP additionally devotes an entire section in the revised style guide to transgender sports, warning writers not to “misgender or imply doubt” about transgender athletes, specifically males competing in women’s sports. For example, the guide bars writers from using the phrase “former men’s swimmer,” directing them to say that transgender players “are banned from playing on teams in line with their gender.”
From a Catholic perspective, these revisions are significant, says Favale. A Catholic convert who approaches gender from a perspective informed by Church teaching, she is the author of “The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory” (Ignatius Press, 2022).
The Catholic Church teaches that a human person’s sex is inherent to his or her own dignity and soul. “By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (No. 2393)….
“It’s presenting as settled and conclusive things that really aren’t,” Favale said.
The AP’s guidance, for example, unilaterally denounces using the term “groom” “without clearly stating it is untrue” in connection with LGBTQ people. The usage of “groom” to refer to the sexual grooming of children, such as in exposure to explicit and graphic sexual content, has been the target of intense backlash by LGBTQ activists in recent months.
AP claims that the word “falsely liken[s] LGBTQ people’s interactions with children” and LGBTQ education to child molestation.
By doing so, Favale said, the stylebook completely “forecloses the possibility that it could ever be true, only that the word ‘groom’ is always inaccurate when used to describe an LGBTQ person.”
The AP’s changes coincide with recent controversy surrounding updates in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary to the entries for “female” and “male.” The dictionary now includes “having a gender identity that is the opposite of male,” as a secondary definition of “female.” Likewise, the definition of “male” now includes “having a gender identity that is opposite of female….”
The above comes from a July 28 Catholic News Agency (CNA) story appearing in Catholic World Report.
Abigail Favale, a professor of gender studies and feminist literary criticism at the University of Notre Dame, says the style book takes philosophical stands on issues under the guise of being a writing guide.
The ‘Pride’ narrative is a totalitarian ideology that is fast becoming institutionalized not only in media organizations but city, state and national government. Fr Mitch Pacwa has said many times that homosexuals (along with all of the other sexually disordered identifiers) will be persecuted right along side of Christians because of their objective and self evident non-conformity to very basic societal norms.
The irony is that they are the ones that are conditioning society to become conditioned and submissive to totalitarian rule so that when a real totalitarian, authoritarian entity gains power, most of the heavy lifting will have already been accomplished. But, as usual, it will be the Christians that they’ll have to worry about the most
Is the style book Catholic?
I bet AP us gonna hear about this from GLAAD.
Please don’t use these suggestions.
What would Jesus do? He changed Peter’s name. A lot of orders change people’s names. We name ourselves after Saints at confirmations and we are not saints.
If you are a Catholic and you want to transition, you should talk to your pastor.
This has been going on for more than half a century and it has never been an issue.
Oh yes….I remember Sister Mary St Thomas Aquinas from grade school back in 1963. I do not think she was a transgender male but one never knows!
A Catholic girl who became a nun, used to receive a special religiois name. It was to denote the new nun’s special, new religious life, having left the secular world, to dedicate herself to God, as a Bride of Christ. A religious name could be in honor of a male or female Saint. It was not personal and worldly, for worldly purposes, it was religious and impersonal, for a religious purpose. And many religious names also had religious devotions attached. For example, St. Therese of Lisieux was called, “Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.” The religious name and devotion were supposed to have a special meaning for the new nun, and help her in her religious vocation, to become holy and closer to God. After Vatican II, many nuns were given the opportunity to renounce their religious names, and return to using their birth/baptismal names, including their surname. So, a nun like St. Therese of Lisieux who renounced her religious name, would then be simply called, “Sister Therese Martin.” Kind of sad.
Exactly, it is ok to change your name.
Menwhile, Douchie is telling gay men at decadent festivals not to skip the piggy parties. When will the society learn that gays are a nuisance and a threat to the social order?
Yeah, this is completely normal: “Up Your Alley (aka Dore Alley), where you’ll get your fill of hot hairy daddies, hungry pigs, BDSM babes and kinks of all kinds. Douchie’s got some hot tips for a fun and filthy weekend — free of anxiety.”
Somebody here seems to know a lot about some things…
AP can decide whatever it wants to do with its rules, and people decide what to do with them. Stop making noise, and go read your catechisms instead.
This is a lot more than “noise.” This is the politicization and destruction of the field of Journalism. If you have a son or daughter– or grandchildren– entering the field of Journalism– or many other fields currently being ripped apart by the immoral liberal leftists and LGBTs– you will see, that if they are good Catholics with good values, it will be very hard for them to get a good job and succeed. They will face a great deal of unjust discrimination.
brain washing