The mandate-happy HHS, famous for ensuring that the misguided Covid vaccine mandates were enforced across the nation, is at it again. This time it has overstepped its bounds (and the bounds of reality) by issuing a pronoun mandate for all its employees. The mandate is ostensibly designed to help folks who don’t feel like they fit into the traditional male/female gender categories. But it’s effect will only be unnecessary confusion.
When I worked as an editor and a college English professor, I was constantly correcting pronoun reference and pronoun/antecedent errors. By definition, a pronoun is “a word that takes the place of a noun.” And it’s important that proper pronoun reference always be used to avoid misunderstandings.
For instance, in the following sentence, did the car or the bridge fall into the water? “The car went over the bridge just before it fell into the water.”
We already have enough trouble keeping our pronouns straight. Adding a bunch of made-up ones would be disastrous for communications. Here are just a few examples of problems this will cause.
- Sarah Gray’s pronouns are she/they. Why is she including two subject pronouns? Are we supposed to say something like, “Sarah is a nice lady. She loves her wife but not they car.”
- How can I call anyone a ve or a ver if nobody knows what that means. “Pat took ver dog to see vis vet.” Seriously, what does that even mean? Is Pat sexually attracted to verandas, vestibules, vistas?
- Even just calling a man a she, could be problematic. “Barry just does what she wants.” If someone outside the HHS hasn’t been told that Barry identifies as a woman, they might think that Barry is a Milquetoast rather than a free spirit.
- I don’t want anyone to call me an it, although I’m pretty sure if an LGBTQ2S person reads this article they would. “Stop it! It’s making us nervous and uncomfortable.”
I understand the desire to respect people who don’t feel like they fit into the so-called “binary male/female categories.” But at what cost? It would be impractical to learn and use all the different pronouns correctly that have been invented in the past several years, with more coming out regularly.
Perhaps the HHS can comment on how they will provide training for “correct” usage and who gets to decide what pronoun usage is considered correct? Is it the MLA, the APA, Chicago Manual of Style? Who is the authority that standardizes, justifies, and codifies these new pronouns? And how much taxpayer money will go into this training? Who decides what the pronouns mean?
If the HHS actually uses these invented pronouns to the T, some communications could turn into nearly impossible-to-decipher gibberish. Consider the following hypothetical email among a group of non-binary coworkers:
Dear Jerrylina. I’m so glad you told Stacy that ze should not put ice cream in the refrigerator. Ze has been bothering me since hir first came to our office. I really don’t know, though because ze was really mad at Carly when xe said to Molina that that per mother was a fat cow for having eaten the ice cream in the first place. You and I both know that per is a person who could use a little bit of restraint in dieting, if you know what I mean. I’m not a mean person per se, but I do think that xe and ze had better do something for xemself and hirself to resolve this conflict. Which brings me to the topic of Tom. Do you know what they did? They didn’t even wait to ask if their friend Tomalina could eat some of the ice cream. They just gave it to (f)aer! Can you believe that? The gall of some people. At this point, I’m ready to call faer, em, them, ver, xem and hir into my office and tell faer, em, them, ver, xem and hir that if fae, ey, they, per, ve, xe, and ze don’t make peace over this ice cream thing, we may just have to kick faer, eir, pers, vis, xyr, and hir out of the refrigerator club.
It’s insanity. I can understand, though not agree with, the idea that we need a third gender option. What we do NOT need is 30 options.
Note that the third person pronouns, they and them, are already gender-less pronouns. The fact that the creators of these new pronouns have felt the need to create new third-person pronouns shows that they only want to cause confusion. They don’t care about helping others feel better about themselves.
Just like the vaccine mandates, the HHS has not done much thinking about the pronoun mandates. But you can! If you are using a pronoun that has no etymology before this century, you’re a victim of liars and frauds. And the HHS is chief among them. Just like the lies they told about the Covid vaccines, the lies about pronoun usage will come to light.
If you ask me, the diabolic is trying to confuse us and obfuscate our identity as a children of God. Don’t let it. Let God decide your identity. Turn to Him and clothe yourself in Christ, because only in Him is there “no male or female…” (Galatians 3:28) and all of the confusion is over and done with.
RL Martin 