Board Thread:Support Requests - Community Management/@comment-25620470-20150907220403/@comment-25620470-20150910211306

My apologies for vanishing; I had to take some time off for my mental health.

I don't think the consequences of using Baggs' pronouns would be that bad, or that it would be unprofessional.

Let's say a 12-year-old or non-native speaker comes across a word they've never heard before. Would it really be that bad? Nonbinary people exist, and people will run across that information sooner or later. If I had found out when I was twelve, it probably would have laid the foundation for more respect towards transgender people (which given the murder and suicide rates, goodness knows our society needs).

I don't think it would be "rewriting history" to use the pronouns. We say "During Amelia's childhood," not "During Amanda's childhood." (Baggs legally changed hir first name from Amanda to Amelia.) If you were writing about my mom's life, you'd use her current surname Rose while describing her unmarried past, and her maiden name would only get a brief mention. When writers write articles about people, we call them what they are called now, not what they were once called.

If we as a society don't respect how transgender people want to be called, it shows a clear double standard. I know guys who had everyone call them "Nacho" and "Boss Man" just for kicks, but when a transgender person says "this is who I am," suddenly the world refuses to listen? Obviously wikis don't use nicknames, but if anyone reading this thread can't stand the idea of people ever uttering the words sie and hir, then I urge you to seriously examine why you feel that way. Pronouns are a lot more important than nicknames.

And we need to be aware that there is a price to not using Baggs' pronouns: we communicate to transgender readers that their wishes are worth nothing here. Failing to acknowledge how someone wants to be called, one of the most basic forms of respect, sends a clear message that this is not a safe space for them and we do not value their perspectives. We'll lose their trust in us,. We'll lose readers.

On the other hand, people who would quit reading over the words sie and hir? They're probably bigots who harbor some serious hate towards transgender people. Are these really the sort of people that we want to cater to?