AP advises journalists to call gay married couples 'partners,' 'couples' -- not 'husbands' and 'wives'

From the media-journalism website, jimromenesko.com:

From: AP Standards
Sent: Mon 2/11/2013 2:45 PM

STYLE WATCH

SAME-SEX COUPLES: We were asked how to report about same-sex couples who call themselves “husband” and “wife.” Our view is that such terms may be used in AP stories with attribution. Generally AP uses couples or partners to describe people in civil unions or same-sex marriages.

Tom Kent
Dave Minthorn

What do you think about having different terms for same-sex vs. opposite-sex married couples?

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Comments

[Ginger]

I always ask people what they would like to be called and think gay couples should be called the same names as straight married couples. That seems to be what gay couples are already telling us by their own designations. Ginger

[David C]

I heartily disagree.

There should be no distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex married couples. We should be using the "husband" and "wife", otherwise same-sex marriages are still "less-than" or different from opposite-sex marriages. Referring to a same-sex married couple as partners is also inaccurate. I think the use of "couple" or "partner" in a long term relationship, civil partnership, or domestic partnership - again, regardless of the gender of its members - is appropriate and accurate. I'm not against the use of "partner" but it should not be applied to those who are married.

Words are important. We have fought for decades for "marriage". Not separate but equal; not something marriage-like; not something different.

As marriage-equality progresses, AP needs to catch up.

NLGJA's style guide also seems to disagree with AP.

[David Cary Hart]

I wish that the style books of the world would omit the term "gay marriage." Marriage is marriage and it follows that a spouse is a spouse whether he be husband or she be wife. It's not all that complicated.

[FemEagle]

A tiny minority of sexually handicapped people should not be allowed to change the language and defy logic to suit themselves, and then force everybody else to go along with the farce. A husband is a man. A wife is a woman. A husband and a wife are a man and a woman, a male and a female, as nature intended all sexual couples to be.

The nonsense prattle that arises from the ridiculous notion of "gay marriage" is very reminiscent of this passage from Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through The Looking Glass":

*When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'*