WND's bigoted attack on Amanda Simpson

In a January 5 article, WorldNetDaily's Chelsea Schilling and Kathleen Farah repeatedly referred to Amanda Simpson -- a transgender woman reportedly appointed by the Obama administration to serve as a Commerce Department adviser -- as "he." WND even went so far as to put Simpson's name, Amanda, in quotation marks:

Mitchell Simpson, now known as "Amanda" following a sex change, is said to have been appointed senior technical adviser at the Commerce Department. He purportedly began work today.

The Commerce website now lists an "Amanda Simpson" in its directory along with a Bureau of Industry and Security e-mail address. The directory does not list a phone number for "Amanda."

The Obama administration has not officially announced the appointment, and neither the White House nor Simpson responded to WND's calls and e-mail messages requesting confirmation of the appointment.

But in a statement reported by the New York Daily News, Simpson said, "As one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds."

Indeed, the Daily News did report that the administration had appointed Simpson and by way of background reported:

President Obama named Simpson to the Commerce post. It is not certain whether she is the first transgendered presidential appointee, but she appears to be the most prominent.

In 2004, Simpson became the first openly transgendered candidate to win a primary election in the U.S. in a bid for the Arizona state legislature. A Democrat, she lost in the general election.

So the Daily News referred to Simpson as "she," but WorldNetDaily, while citing the Daily News, opted to refer to Simpson with the male pronoun. The 2008 Associated Press Stylebook offers this guidance:

transgender Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

 And AP itself opted for the female pronoun in reporting on Simpson's reported appointment. Incidentally, AP also managed to avoid putting needless quotation marks around Simpson's first name.

Which brings us to Fox Nation. Given numerous press accounts, Fox News' "fair and balanced" website linked to -- you guessed it -- WorldNetDaily and its pronoun-bending write-up. But that was just the beginning of the fun Fox Nation had with this story. In announcing Simpson's nomination, Fox focused not on her qualifications or her groundbreaking position as reportedly the first transgender presidential appointee to the federal government. No, the class acts at Fox Nation saw fit to direct their readers to before-and-after pictures:

It's going to be a long year.