To the Editor:
I was deeply displeased to read that your newspaper decided to use "The Importance of Including Everyone" as your headline for Tim Peterson's article about the Fairfax County School Board's vote on including gender identity to their nondiscrimination policy. As a journalist, I believe this smacks of bias and was entirely unnecessary. The editors could have easily lead with a generic news headline, like "Fairfax County School Board Votes on Gender Identity." Instead, seeing the words they chose gave me the distinct and awkward impression that they were using a news story to not so subtly tell us the newspaper supports the school board's decision. In truth, the decision was not about including everyone, just those with "gender identity" issues.
While I applaud Peterson for getting comments from parents on both sides of the issue, the article would have benefited from him probing the deep-seated rationales for each person's conclusion. My guess is that there was much, much more than bathroom and locker room awkwardness that got those hundreds of parents to show up to the school board meeting.
Juliana Erikson
McLean