To the editor:

Tuesday’s City Commission meeting was a long one, and it was horrible to sit through hours of hatred and ignorance being spewed at my community. I was thrilled with how they voted, but I was disappointed when I saw a glaring error on the front page of the Journal-World.

I understand how complicated and diverse LGBTQ terminology can be. This is no excuse, however, for the Journal-World to use the word transvestite. Transgender is an umbrella term for anyone who does not identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth. This includes many identities: transsexual (where someone actually takes steps to change their gender), genderqueer (someone who does not identify as a man or a woman), and crossdresser (people who regularly or occasionally wear the clothing socially assigned to a gender not their own, but are not usually interested in changing their gender). Some people who crossdress use the word transvestite to describe themselves, but overall the best term is crossdresser. This is not a comprehensive list, but hopefully will inform you on the differences between common definitions related to this topic.

While there was a lot of hate speech on Tuesday, the word transvestite didn’t even come up once! You have reported on this issue for years now and interviewed many people who you could have gone to for clarification. I hope that you will issue a correction and make steps to avoid this from happening again in the future.