The Georgetown Law School’s Student Bar Association requested that all students put their preferred pronouns next to their names online.
In an email to Georgetown law students obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, students were encouraged to put their preferred pronouns in their social media biographies, next to their names on Zoom, and in their email signatures. The school requests students do this to stand “in solidarity and support” of transgender and “nonbinary” students.
The email claims that displaying pronouns “helps to ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender identity, will be correctly addressed” in the classroom and online. Straight students must also include their pronouns to avoid “isolating” students who use pronouns such as “they” or “ze.”
“Students may be afraid to out themselves if they do not know their environment is supportive. When we all include our pronouns as part of our daily life, it normalizes the action of doing so,” the email reads. “This five-minute gesture contributes towards a more welcoming and friendly community for all.”
The email provided students with an instructional guide on how to add their preferred pronouns on social media and other platforms.
Also included was a “Speak Up Pocket Card” created by Learning for Justice, the educational arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The pocket card calls for students to “interrupt” behavior they dislike, question and educate an individual who offends them, and “echo” support for people who stand up to “offensive” behavior.
The push for including gender pronouns has become increasingly more common on college campuses. According to Campus Reform, the University of California-Davis puts out an LGBTQIA Resource Center pronoun guide that lists all the gender-neutral pronouns. An updated guide includes the use of pronouns like “yo,” “xie,” “ey,” “en,” and “ve.” The guide also lists, “co,” “he,” “she,” “they,” and “ze.”
The guide provides a conjugation chart that illustrates how each pronoun may be used in the subject, object, possessive, pronoun, and reflexive forms.
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls website told students that they are oppressing their peers if they fail to use preferred pronouns. “Asking someone their pronouns is like asking someone their name,” the website claims, further stating the failure to use preferred pronouns “is not only disrespectful and hurtful but also oppressive.”
The push for pronouns has seeped into the most prestigious medical establishment in America as well. The Mayo Clinic debuted new policies related to gender identity, including a wearable button for employees to display their preferred pronouns.
The Daily Wire reported:
[Mayo Clinic] announced Tuesday that it has updated its Dress and Decorum Policy to approve the pronoun buttons, according to a news article on Mayo Clinic’s internal website viewed by The Daily Wire.
Mayo Clinic also updated its Email Signature Policy for official emails, informing employees that preferred pronouns can now be included in email signatures.
The pronoun discussion is also breaking into broader American culture as social justice warriors from college campuses permeate corporate America. Most recently, Hasbro changed the brand name of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head to the “gender-neutral” name “Potato Head.”