Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I am extremely disappointed in the Gazette-Journal’s decision to allow the pronouns “she” and “her” to be applied to transgender teen Gavin Grimm in two published letters to the editor (Robin Thompson, “Takes issue with G-J headline” and Kendall Sentz, “Anything but typical,” Feb. 16 Readers Write).

However misguided are the views expressed—the idea that Grimm is “aberrant” for instance, when the fact is that expressing one’s genuine gender identity is just another way of being human in the world and nothing for anyone else to be frightened of or to judge negatively—Thompson and Sentz have the right of free speech to air them.

The paper’s editorial staff, however, could have, and should have, insisted that the proper pronouns be used as a matter of civil discourse.

Barbara J. King

Wicomico, Va. ...