A regional daily whch used the ‘they’ pronoun in a story about a school headteacher who identifies as non-binary did not discriminate in doing so, the press watchdog has ruled.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation found in favour of the Bradford Telegraph & Argus after it reported Lindsey Johnson, who had been absent from school for some months, “presents as non-binary using the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’ and the title, Mx.”

The story went on to refer to the teacher as Mx Johnson throughout, as well as using “they” and “them” in inverted commas throughout.

Complaining under Clause 3 (Harassment) and Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, the teacher claimed the use of inverted commas when referring to their pronouns inferred that there was some kind of issue with it, as it was not otherwise relevant to the story.

Denying a breach of Code, the Telegraph & Argus accepted that there was no need for references to their pronouns to be placed within inverted commas, but said the gender identity reference had been used so as to avoid any confusion about the story’s use of “they” and “them” pronouns.

IPSO noted that quotation marks can be used for a variety of reasons and did not agree that the use of quotation marks was necessarily intended or would be understood in the way the teacher suggested.

In circumstances where the teacher’s preferred pronoun was included in the story together with an explanation to assist readers’ understanding, and where the Committee considered that the use of quotation marks was ambiguous in meaning, it did not conclude that the quotation marks had been used in a prejudicial or pejorative way.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.