Globe public editor: Bradley or Chelsea? How The Globe will refer to Private Manning
Although there is nothing specific in The Globe and Mail’s style guide, the practice for transgender people, has been to respect the wishes of the individual as to whether he or she wishes to identify as a woman or a man.
By Sylvia Stead, public editor of The Globe and Mail
Thursday morning, Private Bradley Manning announced that he is a female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.
The Reuters story that The Globe is running online refers to the convicted former junior intelligence analyst as Manning on second reference. But the question was raised of how to describe Manning on second reference and in future stories.
Manning, 25, launched an unprecedented bid to get female hormone treatment in a military prison a day after being sentenced to 35 years for leaking documents to the WikiLeaks website.
While The Globe and Mail often waits for a formal name change, as it did with Research in Motion’s name change to BlackBerry, there is a different practice for individuals, who want to make a permanent name change.
To continue reading, please visit theglobeandmail.com, where this column originally appeared.
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.