With a couple of weeks remaining before his second presidential inauguration, Donald Trump made an unexpected announcement. “[W]e’ll be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ which has a beautiful ring,” the Republican said, adding that the change would be “appropriate” because the body of water is “ours.”
Although the declaration sounded like satire, Trump was quite serious, and the newly sworn-in president talked up the idea again in his inaugural address, as if it were a meaningful part of his governing vision. The Republican signed an executive order hours later, as if he had the unilateral authority to rename international bodies of water that had existed for centuries.
In the weeks and months that followed, assorted lobbying campaigns pushed public and private entities to play along with the White House’s wishes, but as a practical matter, most sensible observers realized that “Gulf of America” was destined to become one of those tiresome phrases used only by rabid partisans, such as “Department of War,” “death tax” and “Democrat Party.”
In some areas, however, it seems people who want to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico are legally prohibited from doing so. AL.com reported:
A station official for WBHM in Birmingham wrote a letter to “friends and listeners” warning that the public radio station is being coerced into using “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico,” and that it threatens the station’s independence.
The mandated change in language that WBHM will be expected to follow under state law takes effect on Oct. 1, after Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law requiring that “all state and local entities and their employees” use the term Gulf of America instead of Gulf of Mexico.
The letter written by WBHM’s executive director and general manager was published online, and it explained that because the public radio station was licensed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, it necessarily meant that every station worked for the state.
“Following conversations with individuals at UAB and the UA System, I have been told that every single communication from WBHM and its team members, made in the capacity of their role as employees, is considered ‘official communication,’” the letter added. “For WBHM, that includes our broadcasts.”
And so, while NPR, like most independent news organizations, continues to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico, the public radio affiliate in one of Alabama’s largest cities believes it cannot legally do so.
“In short, our team will be expected to use ‘Gulf of America’ in place of ‘Gulf of Mexico’ starting on October 1,” the letter went on to say. “I was told that deviations from the law may result in disciplinary action or termination of employees, and failure to comply may impact WBHM’s relationship and support from UAB.”
Sometimes authoritarian shifts in modern American life are obvious, but in many other instances, they can be subtle and easy to miss.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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