Effective immediately, the Northern Star will require employees to ask sources for their preferred pronouns.

The Northern Star recognizes the responsibility journalists have to educate and inform the public while being fair and accurate in the representation of sources. To enforce this responsibility, all Northern Star journalists will be required to ask anyone they interview for their preferred pronoun to respect their sources’ identities.

Genderqueer and gender non-conforming pronouns — those outside of traditional masculine and feminine pronouns — will be respected. In order to educate and inform readers, the staff may at times clarify and define terms and pronouns that may be unfamiliar to the public.

If a Northern Star journalist fails to ask for the source’s preferred pronoun, editors will avoid the use of pronouns and adhere to the use of the source’s last name to avoid any assumptions of their pronouns.

The Northern Star will reach out to the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center for training or information that can be provided to the staff to enforce this policy.

For any questions or concerns, contact Editor in Chief Kelly Bauer at 815-753-0105 or [email protected].