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Good for Kristen. She has my
Good for Kristen. She has my support. Also does a great job reporting traffic.
Yep. Using a highway designation
that was decommissioned in 1989 (128 between Canton and Braintree) is clearly professional reporting. As is improperly identifying a highway exit (references to Route 4 in Lexington when it is still Routes 4 and 225).
If a sports reporter did things like referring to the stadium in Foxborough as Schafer Stadium, or referring to the TD Garden as the Fleece Center, they would be shown the door. But traffic reporters apparently can be as inaccurate as they like without impunity.
And, for the record, I have no problem with (now) Ms. Ek's personal decision.
No one cares roadmap, including yourself
On the other hand if 128 can also be 93 and 95, while 93 can also be 3 then Scott can be Kristen. I love when people want to complain about something and the best they can come up with is "This person uses the wrong designation for that road, I hate them!" We can see through this even if you can't.
I was responding to the "good work " comment
about Kristen's reporting by giving two examples of consistently INACCURATE reporting and pointing how such inaccuracies would not be accepted in any other area of reporting I have NO issues with her personal decision - which is nobody's business but hers. I'm not sure where you got that idea from my pat.
Revising route designations is commonplace, and quickly accepted, in every other state. Yet in Massachusetts, we are still stating "OMG, how can we survive because a highway is a different number now?" Especially forty-two years later.
She reports to the public, not the government
Local reporters should use widely and easily recognized vernacular, not act as minions for the High Committee for Defense and Expansion of Official Roadway Nomenclature.
And fwiw, I found it refreshing when a few brave newspeople refused to use all the silly bought-and-paid-for corporate titles and just called it the 'new Garden' from the get-go.
And she should be reporting correct information
When there are no longer any signs indicating '128' on the highway between Canton and Braintree (hint, there haven't been any since 1991), then using the '128' designation is inaccurate. Just because the public is stuck in the past and are unwilling to accept a change - removal of 128 - that has been in place for twenty seven years does not justify the media improperly reporting a route designation.
And when a sign for an exit says 'Routes 4/225", and you only call the exit "Route 4", that is inaccurate and possibly misleading.
The I-95 and I-93 re-routings happened in 1974. The fact that we insist on clinging to the outdated designations some forty two years later, when we have readily accepted other changes in names during that time, is truly a sad commentary on our lack of common sense.
Route one twenty hate!
The road self-identifies as "128" and is offended by the other bigoted label, even if it's technically accurate.
You can stop beating it now
That horse has been dead so long it's started to rot.
Clearly, if people wanted traffic reporters to use an imprecise designation that didn't distinguish between Peabody, Waltham, Norwood or Attleboro, then that's the terminology that every traffic reporter in the region would use.
Cleary, if the traffic reporters actually used
the correct designations for the highways - the ones that were enacted forty two years ago, then the people would start using the proper designations as well.
When the guide signs, exit numbers, and mileposts all reference the I-95 and I-93 designations, it's just patently silly to continue calling the road by the '128' designation - regardless of what the "get off my lawn" crowd might think about the change.
And if you want to continue calling the road '128', then I also suppose you have no problems with giving the Federal Government all the money back for widening and improving the roads in the past 42 years.
Clearly?
So that the implication is that millions of Boston-area can't figure out how to refer to a road without some radio announcer telling them what to do?
Call me crazy, but I think the cause-and-effect goes in the other direction.
Sorry, Charlie, it's a free country, and I will continue calling that round whatever the fuck I feel like. Tough shit for you. Suck it. I may start referring to it as the "Circumferential Highway" just to piss you off even further.
Fortunately for you, the freedom cuts both ways, so if you prefer to use the same name for three different highways, you are more than welcome to do so.
This whole thread underneath
This whole thread underneath my initial comment is textbook UHub.........
I live to serve!
I live to serve!
Don't forget
America's Technology Highway and Yankee Division Highway off the top of my head.
ps: Good for Kristen. I've enjoyed her work over the years.
Language professional here....
"Accurate" means being descriptive, not prescriptive. The name of a thing is what people call it, not what some "official" entity decrees it should be called. There is an exception for people, who should be called whatever they ask to be called.
The ring highway around Boston is "128".
Oh I tease her about the 128
Good for her.
Also, good choice in name, and she chose the right spelling, to boot. :-)
ARGLE BARGLE!!!
I WANT MY TRAFFIC GENDER FREE!!!!
THE PC LIBERAL MEDIA NEEDS TO STOP CRAMMING THEIR AGENDA DOWN MY THROAT!!
(How was that, guys? I tried to get in before our resident cranks had a chance.)
Good start
You forgot to point out that now there's no way to tell if she's a pedophile, and now how can I know my kids are safe when they listen to the traffic report?!!1!
I love these arguments you
I love these arguments you two are having with yourselves, but pedophile? Wow, that's the icing on cake!
You guys must have a lot of time on your hands.
WOOOSH
Your spoof / sarcasm detector appears to be broken.
Not at all.
Not at all.
Does it matter?
It feels like 2003 all over again. Good for her. I'm glad she's doing what she wants. Can we stop talking about this now?
Transgender issues, much like gay marriage and similar issues, shouldn't concern anyone apart from the individuals involved. Why should anyone care what gender she wants to be identified as? It's a personal decision which affects no one apart from her and her family/friends. Someone's gender should be meaningless except insofar as it's needed to use the polite pronoun.
North Carolina
I agree. These topics should be non-issues for anyone besides the individuals involved and their intimates. However while there are still large swaths of our citizenry and state legislatures determined to make their lives difficult it is encumbent upon the rest of us with any kindness in our hearts to openly and publicly support them.
Unfortunately, no
This deserves to be talked about, for the same (frustrating) reasons we still have to talk about race and sexual orientation and what country you come from. Each person *should* be seen and understood on their own merits, but that's not happening yet; there are still many people who think it's their business to castigate others for how they live. To help move us in a more positive direction, it really, really helps for people to talk about their experiences. It puts a human face on the issue and helps to demystify identities and lifestyles that some people find confusing or frightening.
Yeah let's ignore this
Because the whole country has come around to your way of thinking about it, and it's not like entire states are basically trying to wage war on transgender people, or anything. It's 1953 in a lot of states — have you noticed?
Heck, it's 1953 in a lot of
Heck, it's 1953 in a lot of Massachusetts.
1953 was the worst
I know, right? 1953 was so bad. What was the dropout rate in 1953? What was the heroin epidemic like? How many people were on welfare? What was the murder rate? How many single mothers were there in 1953? How many drive-by shootings did they have that year? Wow high was unemployment? Boy, we've really evolved since 1953.
Seriously, bro?
In 1953 you couldn't go into a bathroom, a bus waiting room, or a store, nor could you use a drinking fountain, if you had the wrong color skin.
Nothing's perfect
I never said it was perfect, but it's better. Funny, in all this time, we have made great strides in racial equality, but the complaining about racial issues has never been worse. You brought it up.
I mostly agree with the other replies here, but...
...you know who it does concern? You know who it does affect, seeing adults living openly in their own gender (or sexuality or "similar issues")?
Kids. Kids who are struggling with their identity and need to know that they can make it to adulthood, can be successful, living as who they really are. Kids who are worried that they'll never be happy. Kids who are maybe contemplating not being alive because of all the negative examples they see all the time- whether it's hateful politicians or people being murdered for who they are.
It's important for other reasons too, like humanizing the issue, etc. as others have said. But it's especially important to give kids- kids like I was, confused about my identity years ago- hope that they can be okay.
She's a person operating in
She's a person operating in the public. It's most polite for the station to announce the change in name & gender, just as they might if an announcer changed her name through marriage.
Acknowledge it to head off the obvious questions that might come their way.
Can we stop talking about
By my reckoning, Adam posted his article about sixty minutes before you posted this.
How long are we permitted to discuss a human-interest story like this, in your world?
I heard Scott Eck before my AM reception started to get bad
So I'm wondering if Kristen has the same voice?
Please folks, read the article before commenting
Your answer will be found there. I know it's hard to click the clicky and all...
Question
What is this obsession with peoples' sexual identity and gender preferences? Would people celebrate as much if somebody who promoted himself as gay for a long time, discovered that he wasn't gay after all and decided not to be gay anymore? I doubt it. He's surely be vilified somehow.
When does that happen?
Conversion therapy's a cruel hoax.
But why are you so obsessed with people's sexuality?
You started the thread
I'm ibsessed with their sexuality? I don't really care who has sex with who as long as it's not children and they can dress up as a neutered horse if it makes them happy. I just find it interesting that if it was a celebrity who discovered he wasn't gay after a long time, and stopped living a gay lifestyle, he wouldn't be celebrated the way Bruce Jenner or Scott Eck is. The only people mandated to celebrate diversity are white, heterosexual males.
GO BACK TO BED, DAD.
(This is only funny to me, whoops. My dad's name is Arthur and it sounds like something he'd say.)
And the answer is....
Funny how everyone's father is wrong. Anyway, nobody answered my question about how the media treated one who left the gay lifestyle.
Ha! Arthur actually wrote this:
"...discovered that he wasn't gay after all and decided not to be gay anymore".
By golly, it *is* still 1953 in some people's heads. Of course, homosexuality as a "lifestyle choice" was a mirage then, too, but back then nearly everyone believed it, not just ignoramuses like Arthur here.
Double standard?
So, one can discover after years of living as a heterosexual, that he's gay or transgendered, but a person who thought he was gay all along can't discover that he's not? Is that written someplace?
I'm all ears
Can you point me to a story about a gay person who just suddenly realized one day he or she was really not gay?
Maybe ....
Perhaps this person doesn't see his sexuality or gender identity as something that needs to be publicized or celebrated. Maybe he just wants to be. I think that's the point I'm trying to make. Why is gender and sexuality something that needs to be constantly in our faces? Bruce Jenner is a tranny, Barney Frank is gay, this one is coming out of the closet....who gives a shit? I find it interesting and enjoyable at the same time that we don't have to hear about the many heterosexuals and how they are living as such. Why does it matter to so many people? Bizarre.
It's only in your face because you put it there
Nobody is forcing you to read articles about things you don't want to read about.
Why read anything?
How do I know what is in the article if I don't read it? If I have opinions on something and don't bother to read about or hear as much of the whole story as possible, I could be accused of being narrow-minded or if making uninformed remarks.
Hokay
Now you're sounding like somebody who's afraid of spiders who subscribes to the Journal of Arachnology. It's great that you're so widely read, but again, nobody's forcing you to read articles you find distasteful; if you really need to read an entire article to figure out it's about a topic that annoys you, and then you keep repeating that, you need to learn about headlines.
Arthur, I don't believe it's my place
to "heterosplain" this to you (better if a gay or trans person did), but I think it has something to do with the historical virulent oppression of gay and trans people. For centuries, coming out as gay or trans put you at risk of social opprobrium at best, limited your opportunities for employment and acceptance within your religion, and at worst, lost you the love of your family and friends, condemned you as a criminal, and/or put you at risk of physical, often lethal violence.
Being able to be out and vocally proud of it must be an enormous relief in our increasingly tolerant society. Given the stubborn presence of Neanderthals who still hold onto ignorant nonsense like, "You can choose to be gay, and then just stop when you feel like it", maybe there's an imperative to be a bit more overt about it, as if to say, "You need to understand this, caveman; I won't be forced to be invisible anymore."
Your problem seems to be one of basic empathy, which lots of straight white men in America suffer from: you've lived so long in a bubble of privilege, one so pervasive you don't even recognize that it's there, that you cannot imagine what it is like to be marginalized in the slightest way. Maybe you could glom onto the fact that the world doesn't owe you the right to feel comfortable at every moment of the day. And maybe it would help you overcome your obvious prejudice and ignorance -- the kind I was once guilty of, too -- to befriend actual gay and trans people. It worked for me.