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

https://twitter.com/parkerwbriden/status/717451699603054592

Welcome to 2016:

A serious discussion about gender neutrality and how to label your cats. https://t.co/NlHAWPzjjb

— Colby Itkowitz (@ColbyItkowitz) April 5, 2016

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

What on earth. https://t.co/83SN8TC87G

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) April 5, 2016

Wait, wait! Just hear her out! The Post’s Lauren R. Taylor writes:

The cats’ lives wouldn’t 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 it’s 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. I’d make a mistake (called “misgendering”), saying something like “Where’s your brother?” (Yes, I talk to my cats.) Usually, I’d remember to fix it (“Where’s your sibling?” or “Where’s your pal?”). Just as I’d 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. I’m not talking about the outright bigotry and hatred –something I can’t know without being in their shoes — but the complete cluelessness. Friends would come over, I’d 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.

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

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