US: Plaques to honour LGBT heroes riddled with spelling errors
Bronze plaques placed in San Francisco’s Castro district to honour the lives of 20 LGBT heroes are riddled with spelling errors.
The plaques were placed on sidewalks in the neighbourhood as part of The Rainbow Honour Walk, which seeks to honour influencers of the LGBT community.
The first round of plaques commemorates now deceased LGBT-expressed individuals who made significant contributions in their fields.
The plaques, however, contained several spelling errors.
Oscar Wilde’s plaque said the writer would be remembered for his “bitting wit.”
Think Oscar Wilde would be amused? Can you catch the misspelling? #rainbowhonorwalk SF #castro #KTVU pic.twitter.com/uaGMB5iRYv
— taramoriarty (@taramoriarty1) September 3, 2014
Christine Jorgensen’s plaque described her as “trangendered” instead of “transgender.”
Some have also said the plaque is factually inaccurate and contains problematic language.
Hey, #RainbowHonorWalk next time, please ask the #trans community about our history. This wording is just shameful. pic.twitter.com/OZfers3srU
— transadvocate (@transadvocate) September 3, 2014
Though most of the attention has been on the plaques of Jorgensen and Wilde, some have also noticed other errors.
Isn’t Pulitzer Prize a proper noun? Shouldn’t the p in prize be capitalized? #RainbowHonorWalk #castro @KTVU pic.twitter.com/TnK1vlN5Fu
— Travis Monson (@travismonsonsf) September 4, 2014
Rainbow Honor Walk chairman David Perry told a San Francisco ABC affiliate: “How it happened, we don’t know. The bottom line is we’re going to fix it.”
Perry added: “Even with the two typos, you look and see the stories of these people and you see their faces.”
The organisation plans to auction off the misspelled plaques once they are replaced.
