Have you received an email from a Coalition staffer, or checked out our staff webpage recently? If so, you might have noticed: all of us have added what pronouns we use—both to our email signatures and website bios.
If you’re not familiar with using personal pronouns beyond just “she” or “he,” here’s a quick primer. Not all people identify as male or female. Many people—often those identifying as genderqueer or transgender—identify along a gender spectrum rather than a gender binary.
Related to this, the pronouns we use are often binary. But there’s an easy way to respect everyone as individuals, and reduce the gender-based microaggressions that genderqueer and transgender folks face on a daily basis. Use the pronouns that people ask you to use. They might use “they,” “ze,” “she,” or “he” or something else entirely! But in asking—and then using—a person’s correct pronouns, you are respecting the core of that person’s being.
Looking for a few more resources to dig into? Try these ones out:
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/10/ignore-gender-pronouns/
http://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462906419/everyone-uses-singular-they-whether-they-realize-it-or-not