New Pronoun Options Please

"MissCherie;c-17017104" wrote:
I feel like ''online'' people care way too much about that kind of details. I have many friends and classmates/co-workers that identify as non-binary and NONE of them care if we call them he or she, it's only online that I see people caring that much about it, none of the LGBTQ+ people I know in real life care about that kind of thing, as long as people are respectful when they talk to them they don't care about the pronouns.

That's great for the people in your life if they're really that comfortable, but that feeling or experience isn't universal to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, and there are still plenty of trans or non-binary people who wouldn't be comfortable hearing the wrong pronouns or might feel invalidated because of it. Also, people feel much safer talking about their gender identity online than they feel talking about it in their real life because what you say online has very little real world consequences. I can walk away from my computer and never go back to a certain webpage or forum post, I can't just walk away from all my classmates/teachers/doctors/friends if they decide they don't want to respect my gender identity.

I let most people use the wrong pronouns for me because I'm usually to anxious to ask them to change or to correct them. I live in a very liberal area but I still don't feel 100% comfortable telling people in real life about my gender identity. And I'm very lucky that I have a best friend who was more than willing to help me come out and get my other friends to use different pronouns/names. And my family is pretty accepting, although not great about using my new name or pronouns (which I accept, although not without a little bit of pain every time I hear the wrong name)