People’s Pronouns are Important

While it might not seem like such a big deal, misgendering someone can leave a negative impact on a person’s life. 

If a teacher constantly misgenders a student by calling them the wrong pronoun, it could make that student feel less important compared to their cisgendered classmates (people whose gender identify matches their assigned sex at birth). 

High school is often a time in which people learn and come to understand certain aspects of themselves. 

Although students’ pronouns do not affect anyone besides themselves, many transgender teens experience bullying and harassment from their peers because of it.

According to Director of Research for the Trevor Project, Dr. Amy Green, transgender youth are two times more likely to report seriously considering or attempting suicide compared to cisgendered teens. 

Additionally the Human Rights Campaign Foundation said that two-thirds of transgender students have depression, with 77% of transgendered teens reporting feeling depressed over the past week.

Only 5% of students report that all of their teachers are supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, and only 50% are allowed to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

It shouldn’t have to be up for debate: everyone deserves to have their pronouns respected. 

It only takes a few seconds to ask someone for their pronouns, but it can make such a difference on that person’s life.

Cisgendered people can help transgender students feel more welcome by normalizing putting their pronouns in things such as their zoom name or Instagram bio. 

If someone who is transmasculine, for example, has ”he/him” in his zoom name to prevent misgendering, he might feel isolated from all other cisgender students. 

In order to be entirely inclusive, people should stop using “he or she” to describe someone they do not know the gender of. 

Instead, the singular pronoun “they” should suffice, as a person could also be non-binary.

Although we often take it for granted, gender is something really important to many people, and feeling accepted in your gender identity is extremely validating.

As a school of progressive and accepting thinkers, we should make it our mission to love and support every student on campus.