#radical copyeditor

A style guide for writing about transgender people is practically an oxymoron. Style guides are designed to create absolutes—bringing rules and order to a meandering and contradictory patchwork quilt of a language. Yet there are no absolutes when it comes to gender. That’s why this is a radical copyeditor’s style guide. Radical copyediting isn’t about absolutes; it’s about context and care.

There are profound reasons for why the language that trans people use to describe ourselves and our communities changes and evolves so quickly. In Western culture, non-trans people have for centuries created the language that describes us, and this language has long labeled us as deviant, criminal, pathological, unwell, and/or unreal.

As trans people have fought for survival, we have also fought for the right to describe ourselves in our own language and to reject language that criminalizes, pathologizes, or invisibilizes us. Just as there is no monolithic transgender community, there is also no one “correct” way to speak or write about trans people.

How to use this guide:

Treat it as general guidance, not concrete rules.

Focus on how to practice care toward people whose experience of gender is different from yours.

Consider context. Language choices completely depend on context: medical environments versus online dating, young children versus elders, USA versus Australia, and so on. Recognize, in particular, that the language used within trans cultural contexts can be far more nuanced than the language outsiders use to describe trans people and trans experiences.

How not to use this guide:

Do not use this guide to harshly police or shame others’ language choices.

Do not use this guide to tell trans people that they are using incorrect language, regardless of whether you yourself are trans or not. A general best practice should never supersede a trans person’s right to use whatever language feels best to them.

Do not care more about words than you do about people.

Should I Use the Adjective “Diverse”? by Radical Copyeditor (Alex Kapitan)

Something I love about The Radical Copyeditor is how accessible they make their discussions, which all begin with a visualization that frames the topic. This flowchart, “Should I Use the Adjective Diverse?” uses shapes, red lines, and bold text to organize information and guide readers through the questions. It’s a nice visual introduction to a complex discussion about how people often incorrectly use the word “diverse,” especially as a euphemism.