The editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary have joined the pro-transgender campaign to erase the popular recognition that men and women are different and complementary.
The editors declared the word “they” as their word of the year because it is increasingly being used to erase the male or female identity of people who seek to describe themselves as “non-binary.” The editors declared that instead of “she” or “he,” the sexless pronoun “they” is being:
used to refer to one person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions between English speakers. There’s no doubt that its use is established in the English language, which is why it was added to the Merriam-Webster.com dictionary this past September.
The 1984-style rewrite of vital language is being pushed by pro-transgender activists who are trying to deny the equal, different, and complementary nature of men and women, and of boys and girls. The dictionary editors wrote:
Nonbinary they was also prominent in the news in 2019. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA) revealed in April during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Equality Act that her child is gender-nonconforming and uses they. Singer Sam Smith announced in September that they now use they and them as pronouns. And the American Psychological Association’s blog officially recommended that singular they be preferred in professional writing over “he or she” when the reference is to a person whose gender is unknown or to a person who prefers they. It is increasingly common to see they and them as a person’s preferred pronouns in Twitter bios, email signatures, and conference nametags.
The pronoun push complements the aggressive effort by pro-transgender groups and business groups to pressure women into letting men steal their sexual identity.
In November, Breitbart News reported that male employees at Goldman Sachs are being allowed to grab women’s female pronouns and identities. The company’s “diversity and inclusion” group posted the pronoun-policy document on November 22, instructing employees to stop using pronouns that recognize the average biological, physiological, and psychological distinctions between men and women:
Pronouns should not be assumed by someone’s name or gender expression (i.e. physical appearance).
Made a mistake? Don’t make a big deal out of it or draw extra attention to it; instead, make a swift apology and use the correct pronoun(s) moving forward.
Practice using gender-neutral pronouns on your own time. Feeling comfortable with these terms does not happen immediately and can require concerted effort.
Recognize that some people go by multiple sets of pronouns, while others may choose to only use their name and eschew pronouns completely.
It is usually acceptable to use the “They / Them” pronoun set when referring to someone who has not expressly stated their pronouns.
The T-Mobile cellphone company is also helping activist employees push the revolutionary claim that men can use women’s pronouns and identity whenever they wish. “T-Mobile is launching new optional name badges for all retail employees that can include employees’ personal pronouns,” the telecommunications firm announced November 6. The press statement said:
Employees at T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile retail stores can choose to add any of the following options:
- He/him/his
- She/her/hers
- They/them/theirs
- Ask me my pronouns
The gradual takeover of women’s nature is being pushed by men who wish to be validated as women, and also by various advocacy groups that were created to win legal rights and civic recognition for gays and lesbians.
Progressive media outlets are aiding the activists’ push to suppress the public’s view that men and women have different biologies, and so have different cultural needs and political priorities.
In April 2019, for example, Time magazine gave a 2019 “Time 100” most influential slot to a “pioneer” who claims to have switched sex, and who claims the male penis can become a “female penis.” Indya Moore claims to be a “transgender woman” despite Moore’s male body. Moore tweeted in February:
In response, gay men, lesbians, and feminists are increasingly joining with conservatives to speak out against the transgender demand. Canadian author Meghan Murphy spoke October 29 in Ontario, amid jeering from a pro-transgender crowd:
I have said that trans-identified males are male. Because they are. This is not a judgement or an insult, it is simply a material reality — a biological reality. If you are born male, you remain male for life. Everyone knows this. It is not a belief or an opinion, it is a fact.
…
The entire language of the trans activist movement has taken up the erasure of women in order to accommodate a tiny minority of people who would like us all to pretend that material reality doesn’t exist. We are no longer women, but ‘cis women’, which means, supposedly, we are women who ‘identify with the gender assigned to us at birth’.
…
Over and over again, I ask those who insist that “transwomen are women” what the word “woman” means. They refuse to answer. They simply say, “It’s a person who identifies as a woman,” which essentially means, “it’s nothing at all” — it is anything anyone says it is.
On what basis do women’s rights exist, if the word “woman” is meaningless? If anyone can identify in and out of femaleness on a whim?
Transgender Facts
In general, the transgender ideology says a person’s legal and civic recognition as a man or a woman is determined by their “gender identity,” not by their biology.
The ideology also insists that men and women are more or less interchangeable, and it objects to the public’s view of the two sexes as simultaneously different, complementary, and equal.
The transgender advocates want to impose their ideology on Americans by establishing “transgender rights” laws. Those rights would require the Department of Justice to penalize individuals and groups who insist that biology determines each person’s male or female status — and also shapes peoples’ likely political, civic, and personal priorities.
Polls show that the transgender ideology is deeply unpopular, especially among women and parents. In 2017, former President Barack Obama told National Public Radio (NPR) that his promotion of the transgender ideology made it easier for Donald Trump to win the presidency.
Multiple polls show that most Americans reasonably wish to help and comfort people who think they are a member of the opposite sex. But those polls also show that Americans reject the transgender ideology’s claim that people’s legal sex is determined by their feeling of “gender identity,” not by biology. A U.K. survey shows a similar mix of sympathy for people who say they are transgender alongside lopsided opposition to the ideology.
The transgender movement is diverse, so its different factions have competing goals and priorities. It includes sexual liberationists, progressives, feminists who wish to blur distinctions between the two sexes, and people who glamorize the differences between the two sexes. It includes high-profile children, people who are trying to live as members of the opposite sex, troubled teenage girls trying to flee womanhood, and people trying to “detransition” back to their sex.
It also includes men who demand sex from lesbians, masculine autogynephiles who say they are entitled to women’s rights, alpha males who insist they are the natural leaders of women, parents eager to support their children’s transgender claims, wealthy donors, politicians, politica lprofessionals, revenue-seeking drug companies, surgeons, and medical service providers.
Transgender advocates claim that two million Americans say they are transgender to a greater or lesser extent. But very few people who describe themselves as transgender undergo cosmetic surgery of the genitals. Only about 4,118 Americans surgically altered their bodies in hospitals from 2000 to 2014 to appear like members of the opposite sex, according to a pro-transgender medical study. A Pentagon report commissioned by former Defense Secretary James Mattis said that “rates for genital surgery are exceedingly low- 2% of transgender men and 10% of transgender women.”
Yet the gender ideology is rapidly gaining power, aided by huge donations from wealthy individuals and medical companies.
These pro-gender claims have an impact on different-sex bathrooms, shelters for battered women, sports leagues for girls, hiking groups for boys, K-12 curricula, university speech codes, religious freedoms, free speech, the social status of women, parents’ rights in childrearing, children’s safety, practices to help teenagers health outcomes, women’s ideals of beauty, culture and civil society, scientific research, prison safety, civic ceremonies, school rules, men’s sense of masculinity, law enforcement, military culture, and children’s sexual privacy.
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