“they” (1 word) is shorter than “he or she” (3 words)
“they” is more inclusive than “he/she”
“themself” flows more naturally than “him or herself”
“they” is less clunky than “(s)he”
it’s time to replace the awkward “she or he”
“hey can you go ask they what does they want for dinner, and when is they coming over to watch movies with they?”
“Hey, can you go ask them what they want for dinner, and when they’re coming over to watch movies?”
Step one is learning how to talk like a human person.
Friendly reminder:
“I shouldn’t like to punish anyone, even if they’d done me wrong.” —George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860)
“A person can’t help their birth.” —William Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)
“But to expose the former faults of any person, without knowing what their present feelings were, seemed unjustifiable.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
“Every Fool can do as they’re bid.” —Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation (1738)
“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” —King James Bible, Matthew 18:35 (transl. 1611)
“God send every one their heart’s desire!” —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (~1600)
“Now this king did keepe a great house, that euerie body might come and take their meat freely.” —Sir Philip Sidney, the Arcadia (1580)
“If … a psalme scape any person, or a lesson, or els yt they omyt one verse or twayne…” —William Bonde, The Pylgrimage of Perfection (1526)
“And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, / They wol come up and offre a Goddés name” —Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Tale (~1380)
“þan hastely hiȝed eche wiȝt on hors & on fote, / huntyng wiȝt houndes alle heie wodes, / til þei neyȝþed so neiȝh to nymphe þe soþe [Then hastily hied each person on horse and on foot / hunting with hounds all the high woods / ‘til they came so near, to tell the truth]” —William and the Werwolf (transl. ~1350-1375)
“Bath ware made sun and mon, / Aiþer wit þer ouen light [Both were made sun and moon / Either with their own light]” —Cursor Mundi (~1325)
We’ve been using they/them/their pronouns to indicate a person with unspecified gender for a long ass fucking time. The only reason it’s become a big issue lately is because it can be used as a semi-respectful term for trans and non-binary folks and we can’t have that can we
These fucks are literally trying to change our language to hurt trans/nb folks, and claiming that’s just the way its always been
hey i made gifs of these so that ppl can see what they look like !! since sometimes just seeing pictures doesn’t always get the sign across
queer:
bi:
transgender:
gay/lesbian:
Awesome
For all my deaf / mute LGBTQ followers or anyone trying to learn
This is such a great post! Deaf and hard of hearing people are members of our community, so let’s show them some love. You can learn ASL online using the resources in this post: http://mashable.com/2014/04/21/how-to-sign/#SdHJ06gZ1Zqy
I will never not reblog this. It’s so hard to come across this post and this ain’t something ASL class will teach you. Sign language is spectrum of widely used languages (they differ country to country) and you never know when you’re going to need it.
The ASL sign for “transgender” is the same sign for “beautiful” but placed over the heart. Happy Trans Day of Visibility!
My thought process just now.
It’s fun that the alien races in this story don’t have a concept of the gender binary so I can just address them as “they” all the time.
[2 minutes later]
Wait, these alien races would also address the main character as “they” since the alien races have no idea what a girl is! And she could also not refer to herself as a girl because the alien races would have no idea what she means! Nice!
[….5 minutes later]
Wait, I could actually make the main character genderqueer yALL
Pass Through Fire 