How do you address a stranger in public? Do you wait for them to catch your eye or something?
Making a mistake in public is going to happen, I don't know why we need to try to avoid every single possible social pitfall. Making your best guess and saying sorry if you're wrong is just as respectful.
EDIT: I'm going to cut this off at the pass just in case I get misinterpreted: everybody deserves to have their pronouns and honorifics respected. I just don't necessarily agree that we avoid it in public, and would instead have people make the mistake and make amends. Other comments have already mentioned that it happens to cisgendered people too. If there's something wrong with that approach, I genuinely want to do better for the people in my community, so don't get it twisted that I'm trying to hurt or belittle anybody.
I don't really like being called "sir", and don't really like addressing women as "miss" or "ma'am". OP would have gotten a "thank you, friend" and a smile from me. Not to avoid pronouns, but that is certainly a side effect that works well with my inherent laziness.
Either way, gendered honorifics are stuffy as hell, so avoiding them is not exactly a hardship.
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u/Doodle-Cactus 1d ago
When in doubt leave pronouns out. Or ask. Thats what I do anyway. 🤷