‘Gender Is A Spectrum’: Associated Press Goes All In With Transgender Language Guide

When the Associated Press goes woke, the media goes with it and such is the case with the news organization’s new “Topical Guide” for coverage of transgender issues.

The Associated Press Stylebook, the default style manual for most news organizations, now officially embraces the language of transgender activists, according to National Review. The phrasing is likely now to show up everywhere from your local newspaper to television newscasts.

“A person’s sex and gender are usually assigned at birth by parents or attendants and can turn out to be inaccurate,” the guide states. “Experts say gender is a spectrum, not a binary structure consisting of only men and women, that can vary among societies and can change over time.”

“Deadnaming,” or referring to a transgender person’s previous name, “can be akin to using a slur and can cause feelings of gender dysphoria to resurface,” the guide states.

Even saying a biological man “identifies” as a woman is not ideal, according to the guide. For that matter, the guide also recommends against the use of “biological” male or female.

Sex changes, whether through surgery or hormones, are “gender-confirmation procedures” or “gender-affirming care.” The guide cites no less an authority than the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which it says  “recently lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition treatment, including ‘sex hormones’ and surgeries. It says hormones can be started at age 14 and some surgeries at 15 or 17.”

The Associated Press guide naturally condemns conservatives, accusing red states of “falsely framing children as under threat” from the pro-trans community that encourages and even facilitates sex changes in children without their parents’ knowledge.

As for sports, where trans women have dominated biological women in swimming, track, wrestling, and other competitions, the AP frets that banning trans women may “unfairly target an already marginalized community, and that rules and monitoring in individual leagues and conferences render such legislation unnecessary.”

The AP had already began using “pregnant people” instead of “women” or “mothers,” but now advises that it is okay to use “pregnant women” when applied to someone who “identifies as a woman.” Never mind that the guide said not to try avoid using “identifies as …”

The update does advise against “overly clinical language like “people with uteruses” or “birthing people.” So there is that.