By Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
People who identify as transgender continue to struggle with making that point inside Colorado’s legal system.
Ariel Attack, a Denver anarchist arrested recently in connection with the vandalism of Colorado Democratic Party headquarters, is identified in official press releases from the Denver Police Department and the Denver District Attorney’s under her male birth name.
DA’s spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough told Law Week Colorado on Monday that she did not know that the suspect self-identifies as transgender.
“Had I known, I would have given that information consideration,” Kimbrough said. However, “it still might not have changed the news release.”
All of the documents related to the case identify this defendant as a white male, and “that is what the news release is based on,” Kimbrough said.
“We have no written policy related to this, just a common practice of using the identifying information that is provided in the case file, which includes name, date of birth, gender and other information.”
The best known recent example of such transgender identify conflict occurred at the trial of Allen Ray Andrade, who was convicted in the hate-crime murder of Angie Zapata.
During Andrade’s trial, the prosecution, under the direction of Republican District Attorney Ken Buck, always referred to Zapata by the same she chose for herself. But Andrade’s attorneys consistently referred to Zapata by her male birth name, making for difficult cross-examinations in which witnesses continually referenced the victim as “she” and the defense as “he.”
In Attack’s case, fundraising pleas by the self-described “radical queer group” Denver Bash Back included the notation that Attack is “listed in the jail records and media under her birth name.”
Some Colorado media outlets, including The Colorado Independent, have respected the suspect’s self-identification as female. But the region’s largest sources of news, including the Denver bureau of the Associated Press and The Denver Post, have continued to fall back on Attack’s legal name and official gender.
In 2006, the widely used AP Stylebook was updated to include usage standards for terms related to transgender people. The book encourages writers to “use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.”
“If that preference is not expressed,” the book continues, “Use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.
According to The New York Times, transgender “is an overall term for people whose current identity differs from their sex at birth, whether or not they have changed their biological characteristics. Cite a person’s transgender status only when it is pertinent and its pertinence is clear to the reader. Unless a former name is newsworthy or pertinent, use the name and pronouns (he, his, she, her, hers) preferred by the transgender person. If no preference is known, use the pronouns consistent with the way the subject lives publicly.”
