‘Kill me now’! Meet the WaPo writer who’s proudly raising her cats ‘gender-neutral’

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Welcome to 2016:

This is a very serious discussion. One might even say it’s thuper-therial.

Wait, wait! Just hear her out! The Post’sLauren R. Taylorwrites:

The cats lives wouldnt change, I reasoned, and it would help me learn to use plural pronouns for my friends, neighbors and colleagues who individually go by they, their and them. Even though using they, them and their as singular pronouns grates on many people because its grammatically incorrect, it seems to be the most popular solution to the question of how to identify people without requiring them to conform to the gender binary of female and male. It also just feels right to refer to people as they wish to be referred to.

Around the house, with just me, Essence and Trouble named for Rare Essence and Trouble Funk, for the DC music lovers reading this things were pretty easy. Id make a mistake (called misgendering), saying something like Wheres your brother? (Yes, I talk to my cats.) Usually, Id remember to fix it (Wheres your sibling? or Wheres your pal?). Just as Id hoped, I began finding it easier to remember to use gender-neutral language for the humans in my life.

And I began to get an infinitesimal taste of what transgender and gender-nonconforming people face. Im not talking about the outright bigotry and hatred something I cant know without being in their shoes but the complete cluelessness. Friends would come over, Id introduce the cats and their pronouns, and some would ask, But what ARE they? Some would randomly use he and she. Some would stumble, unable to form a sentence when talking about one of the cats.

Believe it or not, there’s more. But we’ll let you discover the remaining magic for yourself.

Who needs children when you’ve got gender-neutral fur babies?

Cats can’t tell you to shut up.

They can, of course, think it.

As for Taylor’s request that readers not laugh … well, let’s see how that’s working out for her:

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2016/04/05/kill-me-now-meet-the-wapo-writer-whos-proudly-raising-her-cats-gender-neutral/

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