Married gay couple schools the AP over proper marital terms

Last week, the Associated Press released new guidelines to its writers and editors, telling them to generally use the terms “couples or partners to describe people in civil unions or same-sex marriages.” You know, because LGBT people have fought for their equal marriage rights, but generally, we probably shouldn’t be calling our partners husbands and wives just yet, because that would be acknowledging social progress and that would just be like whaaaaaaat?

In response, Dr Mark Bitgood, a California surgeon who married his husband five years ago, decided to remind the Associated Press that the LGBT community actually had to fight for our ability to marry, but no, referring to married gay couples as “partners” is fine.

Dear Mr. Kent and Mr. Minthorn:

I understand that the AP will only refer to my lawfully wedded husband, Michael Gallagher, as my “husband” if you are aware that we have regularly used those terms.

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As this determination is being made on a case-by-case basis, I wanted to let you know, for your records, that we use these terms.

Thank you for your attention.

Mark J Bitgood

Oakland, California [SOURCE]

Here’s the thing: I get that not every gay couple is married. But not every straight couple is married either, and yet this policy really only addresses gay marriage. If this is just a harmless mistake, at some point, did it not occur to you that this was fucking stupid? And if this was a calculated political move, have you ever considered that maybe the press — you know, that industry you work in — wouldn’t pick this apart the moment you tried to pass this shit off as a journalistic style guide? Not your best move.