Today is International Pronouns Day!

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 16:13:14 -0400
diversityandinclusion, lgbtq, pronouns, umbc, umbccampuslife, umbcmosaic

(Adapted from pronounsday.org).

International Pronouns Day seeks to make asking, sharing, and respecting personal pronouns commonplace. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity, but many transgender and gender nonconforming people are regularly called by the wrong pronouns, which can lead them to feel invisible and marginalized.

If you would like to know more about personal pronouns or general LGBTQ+ community related topics please check out our upcoming SafeZone session or email Carlos Turcios, Coordinator for Student Diversity and Inclusion at carlos6@umbc.edu.

What and Why

WHAT ARE PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?

In English, whether we realize it or not, people frequently refer to us using pronouns when speaking about us. Often, when speaking of a singular human in the third person, these pronouns have a gender implied -- such as “he” to refer to a man/boy or “she” to refer to a woman/girl. These associations are not always accurate or helpful.

(image from pronounsday.org)

Often, people make assumptions about the gender of another person based on the person’s appearance or name. These assumptions aren’t always correct, and the act of making an assumption (even if correct) sends a potentially harmful message -- that people have to look a certain way to demonstrate the gender that they are or are not.

Using someone’s correct personal pronouns is a way to respect them and create an inclusive environment, just as using a person’s name can be a way to respect them. Just as it can be offensive or even harassing to make up a nickname for someone and call them that nickname against their will, it can be offensive or harassing to guess at someone’s pronouns and refer to them using those pronouns if that is not how that person wants to be known. Or, worse, actively choosing to ignore the pronouns someone has stated that they go by could imply the oppressive notion that intersex, transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people do not or should not exist.

When we refer to "personal" pronouns, we don't mean that these pronouns are necessarily private information (generally they are not), we mean that they are pronouns referring to a unique and individual person.