Since it seems rude to accuse others of being pedantic while being pedantic myself, I will just acknowledge that the good people at the Wall Street Journal have a (pedantic) point about what a “bisexual couple” would look like–both in person and in a sentence. We could parse the phrases in the White House statement until the WSJ editorial page supports single-payer health care and I’m not sure we’d be anywhere closer to an agreement on whether the phrasing worked so it’s probably time for a truce.
To their final question, they’ve opened up another whole can of worms that probably can’t be pleasantly resolved in a blog exchange:
Here’s something else that puzzles us. Triplett’s organization is called the NLGJA. Notice anything missing? Are we given to understand that BJs and TJs are second-class LGBTJs?
Names, like acronyms, are sometimes imperfect. Why is it called the Wall Street Journal when it doesn’t just cover Wall Street, but also covers K Street, Fifth Avenue, and Silicon Valley? The answer, of course, is that the name is just a name and doesn’t necessarily have a larger meaning. The NLGBTJA would be a more inclusive name–and maybe it should be changed–but quite a mouthful to say and put on a letterhead.
The organization began as NLGJA when it was founded by Leroy Aarons in 1990, with the goal of not being “politically correct,” but encouraging “fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues.” If you want to find out more, you can attend our annual convention in Montreal from Sept. 10-13 and become a member.