It so saddens me as this is not the first time I’ve run across our LGBTQ community being so hateful and judgemental of others not in accordance of their personal views. Do we forget the hate and persecution directed at us that we’ve all faced thru the decades and now that we ALL enjoy a more accepting climate, we are the ones that spit out the most hate and condemnation of any person, group, or government official including our President that has any viewpoint or value system that differs or seems different from our own? And it is utterly disgusting that our community and especially the NLGJA could not embrace this opportunity and at least counter Marshall McPeek’s comments at the time of being said and turned it into a positive situation. Poor choice of words on his part, agreed but as anyone in the writing profession or any bilingual person familiar with the languages that to this day use grammatical gender in everyday conversation – he – she – it (neutral); he was not exactly wrong. Our community within the last couple decades created other sexual identity terms: sex & gender (traditional), cisgender, transgender, and transsexual. Science has shown and proven that “gender” is not even entirely of one body and that there can actually be multiple “genders” in one body but this is going to take several generations for people to even grasp or understand this. “Male” and “female” has been ingrained across multiple societies and cultures since man began to label and name everything it observed. So come on “queer as folk” give this man a break and listen to what the man said, look at him as a person and think of his character and whether he really meant his choice of words to be interpreted literally as most of you have taken to the moon to mean. We are supposed to be a diverse, loving, caring, and understanding group of people but now that we have gained major acceptance and understanding in many of our societies we have become nothing more than hateful people demanding that our viewpoints and beliefs are absolute and that anyone not accepting of them are the ultimate “haters”. Seems very Ku Klux Klan, White Supremacists, or Christians Against Gays to me and I for one am totally ashamed that our LGBTQ community has become nothing more than these other “hate” groups. Accept the man’s apology and perhaps allow him to clarify and elaborate what his thoughts were at the time of presentation where his choice of words failed. He is after all a talented media man and perhaps we should take advantage of his skill set and perhaps invite him in educating others of inclusiveness of transgender and nonbinary journalists. And just for the record, as a gay man of 58 years I have NEVER heard of a nonbinary journalist and I challenge many of you in the LGBTQ community if you have heard the same. Move on with love, awareness, acceptance, and the ability to educate others and quit with the condemnation of anyone not accepting, aware, or having the ability to understand what WE are all about! 🏳️🌈 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists issued an apology on Sunday after an emcee at its annual conference welcomed a crowd of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer news professionals as “ladies and gentlemen, things and its.”
“We’ve worked hard for many years to make NLGJA an inclusive organization for transgender and nonbinary journalists,” the organization said in a statement. “People were understandably hurt and offended by last night’s remarks. As journalists, we understand uniquely that words matter. We apologize and are committed to working to make NLGJA more inclusive and diverse.”
Marshall McPeek, chief meteorologist for Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned Fox 28 and ABC 6 in Columbus, Ohio, made the offending remarks on Saturday evening during the conference’s closing reception, which was sponsored by Fox News. McPeek apologized later that same evening for his comments and resigned his NLGJA membership shortly thereafter.
News of the incident spread beyond the Palm Springs conference after reporter Mary Emily O’Hara, who was in the audience, captured the moment in a widely shared tweet.
McPeek’s remarks cast a pall over the event and several attendees walked out. Monica Roberts, a transgender writer from Houston who was present during Saturday’s closing reception, wrote about the incident Monday on her blog, TransGriot.
“While I am happy McPeek came back later and apologized and NLGJA an organization I’ve been a member of for several years has released a statement about it, the damage was still done,” Roberts wrote. “No Mr. McPeek and by extension, NLGJA and FOX News, there were no ‘things and its’ in that Hotel Zoso room that September 8 night. There were trans, gender non-conforming (GNC) and non-binary (NB) people in there. There were your trans, GNC and NB media colleagues in that room.”
Menschheit: A prospective from Stanley E Thornburgh II 