As stated, October 16th is International Pronouns Day, a day that encourages and demands respect for all Non-Binary, Transgender and other people who face discrimination. There is also a facebook page (#InternationalPronounsDay) and a twitter account. From the site:
International Pronouns Day seeks to make respecting, sharing, and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.
Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity. Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people. Together, we can transform society to celebrate people’s multiple, intersecting identities.
I’m a bit miffed because I’ve never heard of this before. Then again, it was established in 2018.
My pronouns are She and Her.
Sadly, I am still forced to work “male”, must dress as that gender, and put up with “he” and “him” on the job.
The school’s Hallowe’en event is another matter. I fully intend on dressing as a woman, in a costume to be revealed later.
This is what misgendering looks like, is and does:
I cannot visually pass for a man, so most people refer to me with my non-preferred pronouns. Generally, I don’t bother correcting them most of the time. For example, if the person who delivers my mail addresses me with Ms., there’s just no point arguing over it and making a scene. Yet it still feels mildly annoying when people refer to me as a woman. It feels unfair that I have to have my body chopped up by surgeons and pay for an expensive hormone replacement therapy in order to “earn” the privilege of being referred to with my preferred pronouns. Majority of human beings get this “privilege” literally without doing anything special at all. So why do I have to pay thousands of dollars from my own pocket (where I live neither insurance nor the state pay for any medical treatment for trans people) in order to be able to experience what all the cis people take for granted? It’s just unfair.
This really sucks. I’d be in agony if I had to dress as a woman in my daily life. I at least can freely dress as a man. That’s sort of socially accepted. That just results in all the people mistaking me for a butch lesbian.