[BBXX]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Thought everyone could pick their own pronouns, thought that was the point...'encouraging,' people to pick certain ones doesn't tally...

I don't think they're encouraging people to put gender neutral pronouns if they aren't gender neutral, just if they are. It reads very weirdly.

I have, obviously, many opinions on this.

1. Nobody should be forced to do this. Encouragement is one thing, it being a requirement is another. I understand the logic in encouraging it - which is if cisgender people do it, then it makes it less obvious when gender-neutral people do it, which may make people feel more comfortable if putting 'they/them' on a signature for example and saves someone referring to them as 'she' or 'he' when that's not how they identify.

2. Putting pronouns in email signatures can actually be helpful for many people who have gender neutral names such as Sam, Jo, Alex, Ali etc... I was referring to someone called Alfie as a he for ages until I realised they were a woman! I didn't even know Alfie was a woman's name!

3. All this talk about discrimination towards people who don't subscribe to then 'ideology' and liken it to the tooth fairy etc... urgh. Literally what is the harm is referencing someone as a he if that's how they prefer to be referenced regardless of whether they are biologically a girl or whatever. Like nobody else is asking you to believe, just respect others belief. Like I do with religion. I will ask colleagues and friends about their religious celebrations even though I think the whole thing is totally made up rubbish! I know people who have a different name on their birth certificate to the one they want to be called and I call them by their preferred name because it's just manners. It's not technically their given name, but why would I care.

4. Fiona needs to understand pronouns are not just about sex, but also gender. We refer to people we didn't know the gender of as 'they' many times in life, so why now is it an issue when people are asked to out of respect for self-identification.

5. I don't understand ze/zer/zim in the slightest and I don't understand loads of other Neo-pronouns but I also really don't give a **** if someone asks me to refer to them in that way because it makes literally no difference to me or my life but makes a lot of difference to theirs.