The Importance of Respecting Someone’s Gender Identity and Pronouns
By Artie Ray Hughes (He/Him) In recent years, more conversations are taking place about gender identity and pronouns, but the earliest recordings can be dated back to 4500 years ago. There are those who dismiss transgenderism and argue that one’s gender identity is determined by their biological sex. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss was recently asked if a “Trans woman is a woman?” and she responded “No”. Those she describes as woke, believe gender identity is one’s connection to their own gender, which can be, but doesn’t have to be correlated with their biological sex. Similarly, one’s pronouns can, but do not have to correlate with their gender identity. Pronouns are words used to refer to someone or something when you don’t use a noun. This includes, he, she, they, you, I, we, and neopronouns, xe, ze and ey). I am a transgender man who uses he/him pronouns. I grew up in a very conservative small village, living around those who shared the same view as Truss. Face to face conversati...