aimee stephens birth name

Reporting from The New York Times, The Associated Press, and The Detroit News on the May 12 death of Aimee Stephens needlessly published her deadname, or former name…

. The New York Times, The Associated Press and the Detroit News were among the media outlets that published Stephens’ former legal name, the male name she had used prior to her gender transition in 2013. Stephens retrained as a medical assistant and found a job, but by this time her health, undermined by a period of time without health insurance, deteriorated so badly that she could no longer work.By the time the case reached the Supreme Court, the federal government had switched positions. “An earlier version of this obituary included the name Ms. Stephens was given at birth, which she no longer used. Aimee Stephens, the transgender woman whose lawsuit led to the landmark Supreme Court ruling that federal law protects LGBTQ workers, died last month at the age of 59. “And then print it only if it’s newsworthy.”As of Friday morning, the Detroit News’ article still included Stephens’ former name.“The reality of trans lives is that we struggle against the interpersonal and systemic beliefs that we are only putting on our genders and that beneath them lies some ‘truth’ of who we really are — and that notion fuels violence and discrimination against members of the trans community,” Strangio, who is transgender, wrote.“To then write about a woman who is trans and remind the reader of her deadname under the pretense that what she was called at birth is important to understanding who she is today actually evokes the image of a man for readers and contributes to the insidious social understanding that ‘this person claimed to be a woman but was really a man,’” Strangio continued.“The best way to refer to a trans person — even when discussing their past — is to use whatever name and pronouns that individual currently uses,” Molloy, who is transgender, wrote.Raquel Willis, a transgender activist, writer and former editor at Out Magazine, said in 2020, there’s not much excuse anymore for continued deadnaming in major publications: “We have to call it what it is: ignorance.”“As a black woman I liken it — and this might get me into some hot water — but I liken it to a news reporter in the ‘70s saying ‘colored’ instead of ‘black’ or ‘African American,’” Willis said. .

. This line of argument, which treats transgender identity as somehow conditional, was painful for a lot of trans people to hear. She commenced a months-long process of composing her coming-out letter.

Before I saw Aimee Stephens, on October 8, 2019, I heard applause and chanting: “We love you, Aimee! Ai-mee! She is American by nationality and lives in Michigan with her family. With the support of my loving wife, I have decided to become the person that my mind already is. For the next few years, Stephens lived as a woman at home and a man at work, and this, too, proved untenable. Instead of arguing what had been the E.E.O.C.’s position—that Stephens’s firing constituted discrimination “because of sex,” which is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964—the Justice Department Speaking at the Supreme Court, the A.C.L.U. I cannot begin […] Stephens lost her case but then won on appeal, in the circuit court. Her age isn’t available on the internet. . attorney Chase Strangio, who worked on the case, said, speaking about Stephens. “Sure, we can extend some grace to you not understanding, but it’s also your job to be aware of the communities you’re reporting on and what language they’re using.”Something as simple as asking an interviewee which pronouns they use no matter your impression of their gender identity, Willis suggested, goes a long way.So when, if ever, do transgender advocates think it is relevant and acceptable to use a trans person’s former name in a news article?Willis said there are some “special cases where you would need to use a name that someone doesn’t currently use.”“Someone who was a public figure, who people knew as one name, and this was about trying to educate the rest of the public about them changing their names or pronouns,” she explained.However, once the new name of a public figure — Caitlyn Jenner and Chelsea Manning, for example — “becomes common knowledge, it is unnecessary and disrespectful to continue referring to their old name,” Nick Adams, GLAAD’s director of transgender media and representation, said in an interview with Media Matters last year.The New York Times and The Associated Press published the birth name of trans woman Aimee Stephens, igniting swift and fierce criticism from LGBTQ advocates.