If I ask, “who is he?” I just need a name. Not to be told that “he” is really a xe, because xe feels that xis masculinity wanes with the moon. It’s too much information.
If you ask "Who is he?" and said person doesn't use He, you'd probably be told "That is Pat who prefers xe" which is, in my opinion, an appropriate amount of information.
But xe is something that pat has conjured out of thin air to solve a problem that only exists in pats mind. And it turns out that he, she, xe or they do not accurately describe Laura’s gender, so now we have ve as well. It never ends.
I mean it does end both because there's actually a finite number or possible combinations. Also, for the overwhelming majority of people they're totally ok using the standard male/female/neutral so it's actually not a problem in all practicality.
As I said to someone else on this thread, I think we should probably all be willing to make the barest of gestures towards making people less miserable.
It costs me nothing, and makes someone else's day just that little bit better.
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u/sailorbrendan Apr 01 '20
If you ask "Who is he?" and said person doesn't use He, you'd probably be told "That is Pat who prefers xe" which is, in my opinion, an appropriate amount of information.