A debate ensued Thursday about pronouns and our duty as journalists to use accurate and sensitive language.

A reporter submitted a story in which one of the sources identified as “genderqueer.”

Genderqueer people consider themselves gender neutral – a complete mix of masculine and feminine personality traits or void of either.

They do not feel pronouns that accompany the typical gender binary such as, “he” and “she” are accurate.

This is not same as transgender individuals who are born physically one sex but feel they are the opposite gender.

Because the source identified as genderqueer, we had to choose which pronouns to use in the story.

Genderqueer individuals request words like, “zhe,” “hir,” the “singular ‘they’ and ‘their'” be used in place of traditional pronouns.

I wanted to respect the source but I also wanted to respect the rules of grammar as expressed in style books and dictionaries. I wanted to inform the readers but not confuse them.

After research into standard style guides, I found no rule to guide me.

I sought help.

I checked the websites of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and spoke to representatives from each.

Our conversations were informative but yielded no style rule to help me.

I also asked journalism department faculty for advice throughout the day.

By late afternoon I had three suggestions.

1. Use gender neutral pronouns in the part of the story that

referred to the source and attach an editors note to the article

explaining the appearance of new words.

2. Add a sidebar or info graph describing the gender neutral pronouns and simply avoid them all in the story by using the sources first name at every reference.

3. Write the story using the pronoun that reported the reality of the sources sex. Add a graph that described the alternative pronouns but do not use them in the story.

I was set on the first option.

I wanted to help the source push the language to evolve and set

precedent for this new pronoun usage.

However, it is my duty, among other things, to make sure the language my reporters use is accurate and easy to understand.

As journalists we report the truth, and in the news, the truth means reality. Not the postmodern concept that we each create our own reality, but objective tangible reality.

Since no standard existed on the issue, and the gender neutral pronouns requested are not yet recognized by most of English users, I could not pander to the source and had to land on the side of accuracy.

The source had a sex and I had to use the pronoun that fit.

However I will be eager to read on the development of these pronouns in the future.