Good grammar saves lives or, at least, saves face, as the Texas Republican Party found out this week.
NPR pointed out that one line from the Texas GOP's newly adopted 2016 party platform regarding its stance on homosexuality doesn’t quite mean what it likely intended. See if you can spot the typo:
Do you see it? The sentence, thanks to its use of the word “has,” means that the Texas GOP accidentally called the majority of Texans gay. Whoops! (Also, trick question. There are two typos there. “Nations” should totally have an apostrophe.)
By using the singular “has” rather than the plural “have,” the sentence ends up referring to the word “homosexuality,” rather than “truths,” for everything that follows. It implies that homosexuality was ordained by God, recognized by the nation’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.
The moral of the story is that a good proofreader is worth their weight in gold. It's also worth it to pay attention in English class.