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What should we use as gender-neutral pronouns for non-binary people?
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A new gender-neutral pronoun would be more meaningful

Using something new would give those in the LGBTQ community a set of pronouns which they can lay claim to. It would be a point of pride to "own" a unique set of pronouns made specifically for the LGBTQ community.
English Gender Identity LGBTQ

The Argument

Individuals within the LGBTQ community should be given the chance to create a new set of gender-neutral pronouns, or make official use of the unique ones which have already been made. This would give people a chance to "own" their gender identities and have something unique which they can be proud of. There are already a ton of options for new gender-neutral pronouns out there; including, but not limited to, ze/hir, fae/faer, ve/ver, xe/xem, etc. All of these are unique and any of them would enrich the English language while also showing respect to those of a non-binary gender.[1] Singular they/them is not a good choice because it would be too hard to adapt to grammatically. Changing the meaning of these words would only cause confusion for most people. Therefore, creating a new set of pronouns would be the better option, as it would be far easier to adapt to something new.[2]

Counter arguments

Singular they/them would be easier to adapt to than creating something new. Trying to introduce a new word into the English language would feel alien and people would balk at being forced to adapt to a foreign word. Singular they/them, on the other hand, already has a history of being used in a gender-neutral way; so to adopt it as a set of gender-neutral pronouns would feel more natural and be far easier to adapt to.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] Creating or using a new set of gender-neutral pronouns is more meaningful and would be easier to adapt to.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Using something new would be more difficult to adapt to than using singular they/them as it is already a familiar part of the English language.

References

  1. https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/opinion/gender-neutral-pronouns.html
This page was last edited on Friday, 17 Apr 2020 at 12:31 UTC

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