You Don’t Have To Be Trans To Tell People Your Pronouns
Oh hey! My name is Emily and I go by she/her pronouns!
I was wrapping up a meeting last week when my friend Charlotte tossed in this whingdinger:
“So what’s the deal with all these pronoun changes, anyway?!?”
Charlotte is great. She’s in her 60's and has worked in the tech field for most of her life, breaking down stereotypes while wearing loads of sparkly jewelry and making sure her manicure is always perfect. We volunteer together on the board of an organization that helps out families in our community. She really believes in equality and wants everyone to have a fair shot.
But sometimes she uses phrases like ‘the gays’ and once she referred to a male employee as ‘the hunky one’.Her heart is kind, but her mind is not woke.
So I asked her what she meant with her question about the pronouns.
As a lifelong female-identifying female married to a male-identifying man, I’m not exactly the poster child for gender-fluid pronouns. But I’ve worked in a high school where kids are always questioning and figuring out everything, which has allowed me to learn a lot about how to navigate the waters of being an LGBTQ ally.
What I’ve learned is this: just talking about pronouns, sexuality, or gender issues goes a…
