You want to be prepared to pronounce the proper pronouns. Because addressing a total stranger whose “gender preference” you probably can’t predict presents a preponderance of problems. At least for them.
“Referring to somebody with the wrong pronouns can make them feel just gross, it’s just disrespectful and it makes people feel invalid or invisible, and dismissed, alienated, dysphoric, and a bunch of unpleasant things,” Reyes said.
Melting snowflakes are not my problem. It is not my job to anticipate your feels to prevent the sads. But if we’re talking college campus culture, that’s their new math.
The calculus of social justice demands significant amounts of energy to satisfy its angry gods.
San Diego State University held a “Pronouns 101” workshop on November 20 in honor of “Transgender Awareness Day.”
The event, hosted by Wesley Palau, coordinator of SDSU’s Pride Center, and Miles Reyes, part of the Pride Center’s media team, spent time teaching students how to use language that is inclusive of transgender people
There was a time in my life when I chose to have long hair, and I was “misgendered.” It came with the territory. I offered a correction when warranted, and if they didn’t care, I didn’t care. We each made choices and chose to live with them.
In polite society – remember what that is – if it matters that much, you offer a suggested change of address at the point of contact. If the other party is unable or unwilling, get over it. You cannot compel speech in others, certainly not at publicly funded universities. But it is an increasingly popular idea that the left has tried to make punishable by law.
Law, as we all know, has created institutional harms (like slavery) over which we continue to debate. But the left is not interested in debate. They seek paths that limit or silence expression that challenge their doctrine. This is no different.
Free speech is under constant assault, and we need to protect it at all costs, even if it makes us feel gross.
