From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/the-associated-presss-ref_b_2716424.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
Michelangelo Signorile
02/19/2013
I’ve been with my partner for 18 years. As residents of the state of New York, we could be legally married if we chose, given that New York passed a marriage equality law in 2011. My partner would then legally be my husband, and we’d have all the same rights of marriage that New York grants heterosexual couples. We could file a joint New York tax return. My husband could sue an entity for wrongful death if something terrible happened to me. If he died, I’d inherit his assets over his family or anyone else, even if there were no will, as would be the case with any heterosexual married couple.
But according to the Associated Press, that would not necessarily be a marriage, and my partner would not necessarily be my husband. The AP has decreed that he could be called my husband if I insisted on describing him as such in a quotation (i.e., “This is my husband”), or if the reporter knew that I’d called him my husband for some time, regardless of the existence of a legal contract that binds us in the state of New York — a public record, which the reporter could obtain — called a marriage certificate.
Confused? Last week the AP decided in an internal memo on style that was issued to reporters and then leaked to media watchdog Jim Romenesko that reporters should not refer to individuals in legal same-sex marriages as “husbands” or “wives” as they’d refer to individuals in legal heterosexual marriages. After an uproar, the AP issued an update stating that the “husband” or “wife” label is appropriate for gays under two circumstances: 1) if it’s part of a quotation (which is pretty ridiculous, because anyone can dub any other person a “psychic,” a “dancing bear” or even the “resurrected Jesus” if it’s in a quotation, but that doesn’t make it true), or 2) if reporter knows that the couple has used this terminology to describe one another in the past.
Of course, that is not the standard that the AP uses when it comes to heterosexual marriages; the legal contract issued by a state is more than enough for them. Gay bloggers and journalists pointed out the unequal treatment, and the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association wrote an open letter criticizing the AP. One AP reporter, David Crary, even told gay journalist Rex Wockner in an email that he would not be following the guideline. But the AP has refused to back down on the seemingly hastily written memo and is instead trying to downplay the entire affair.
Though the AP has not offered any further information, it seems apparent that they initially determined gay marriages to be different because not every state grants them or recognizes the gay marriages performed in the District of Columbia or the nine states where they’re legal, and because the federal government doesn’t recognize those marriages, either, thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Continue reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/the-associated-presss-ref_b_2716424.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
