The University of Minnesota has proposed a policy that would punish students and professors for not using someone’s preferred gender pronoun. Failure to do so may result in expulsion for students or firing for professors.
The draft policy, titled “Equity and Access: Gender Identity, Gender Expression, Names and Pronouns,” states that UM wants to provide an environment “free from discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and gender expression …” The school will do so by providing gender inclusive options available for housing, restrooms and locker rooms.
The school will allow students and faculty to “specify a name and/or gender identity that differs from the name and/or sex, sex assigned at birth, and/or gender identity listed on their legal documents.” They will also be allowed to specify their preferred pronouns (such as he, she, ze, or something else) “without being required to provide documentation of their gender identity.”
Students and faculty can specify their preferred pronouns and gender identity either in writing or verbally. School officials “must take reasonable steps” to maintain the person’s original names and sex in university records if they differ from the preferred gender identity and pronouns.
Students are allowed to choose from a list of personal pronouns on the campus website: He/him/his, none, prefer not to specify, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs, or ze/zir/zirs. They can also specify their gender identity as one of the following: Agender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, man, nonbinary, prefer not to specify, two spirit, woman, or they can enter their own.
This will be so confusing that there will be at least a few expulsions and firings before someone appeals this law all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse it. I am confused as to why the existing pronouns don’t work. A transgender originally a man that is now a woman would be SHE, while a transgender originally a woman that is now a man would be HE. I thought the whole reason for transgender is to correct the gender one was born with. This idea of finding a middle area between he and she negates this and… Read more »
Where are the professors and students with the cojones to speak for free speech?
[…] decision modifies the previous policy, under which students were only allowed to choose from a list of third person pronouns on the […]