The magazine Runawayswell-known in the LGBTQ+ community, had to apologize this week after using the wrong pronouns and conjugations in an article that quoted someone who identifies with the non-binary spectrum.
The media pleads the error of good faith, while the burlesque artist Rosie Bourgeoisie swears to have asked the journalist to use an inclusive or neutral writing to speak about her person.
After Rosie Bourgeoisie and the show promoter curtly criticized the magazine, Runaways corrected the text and made amends on its Facebook page, expressing the wish to “become actors of pedagogy” in the future.
“I admit I was a little surprised by the extent of the controversy. I find it sad, because if there is a media that speaks of the reality of non-binary people, it is the Fugues “, specified in an interview with the To have to the director of the monthly, Yves Lafontaine.
A very militant magazine when it was created in the 1980s in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, the Runaways continues to mainly cover gay community issues and Village news. The medium, which prides itself on having a reach of 300,000 readers, has however opened up to other realities in recent years, in particular that of trans and non-binary people.
Inclusive writing is not systematic, but it is used by some columnists, in addition to having been the subject of a few articles. Each time, Yves Lafontaine finds that a significant part of the readership protests against it, especially among gay men and lesbian women of a certain age. Proof, according to him, that there is a generational divide on these issues within the community itself.
“It shows that there must be an opening on both sides. Non-binary people also need to understand that this is a new reality, and that while it’s part of their everyday life, it’s not part of most people’s,” the director of the magazine Runaways.
Apology Rejected
Rosie Bourgeoisie, who society assigned as a woman at birth, doesn’t see it that way. For the artist, being called “madam” by the cashier at the grocery store is still acceptable, even if it is a form of “micro-aggression” according to her feelings. But being misgendered by a magazine that claims to be inclusive is simply unacceptable.
“I was giving an interview about a show that promotes diversity. I took the trouble to open up about my personal experience, about my gender identity. And when I read the article, I see that they are causing me violence by rejecting everything I had said, ”laments Rosie Bourgeoisie, who claims the labels “non-binary” and “genderfuck”.
The artist, who also campaigns against grossophobia, does not accept the apologies of the management of the magazine Runaways and will hesitate in the future before granting an interview to the magazine: “I did not feel that it was an apology. I felt more like they were looking for excuses. »
According to Le Fugues, 20% of its readers under the age of 25 identify as neither male nor female, like Rosie Bourgeoisie.