The Hampton Script

Ryland Staples | Staff Writer

Jacquelyn Martin | Associated Press

Recently, there has been a lot of hateful rhetoric said about individuals who don’t identify themselves on the traditional binary spectrum of gender, as well as people who don’t conform to the tradition norms of gender roles.

These people often consider themselves to be transgender or non-binary/genderqueer. There has been a lot of disrespect going around on social media with people proclaiming that even if they were told a person’s personal pronouns, they would still call them by their birth-assigned pronouns.

In my opinion, that is very disrespectful and shouldn’t be tolerated by anyone, no matter what you believe in.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, the definition of transgender is, “An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.”

According to Trans Media Watch, non-binary is, “an umbrella term used to describe people who do not feel male or female. They may feel that they embody elements of both, that they are somewhere in between or that they are something different.”

With this in mind, let’s talk about what’s so wrong about totally ignoring someone’s personal pronoun. That’s their identity and who they are as people.

If you don’t even have the common decency to call a person by their pronouns, then you’re just belittling them as a person.

It takes a lot for someone to be able to feel comfortable in their own skin. It’s hard to accept yourself when you feel like you don’t belong and have to be in situations where you don’t feel comfortable.

Being able to freely express yourself is something that you should be able to take pride in. Coming to terms with what you are is a part of life, and there should be pride in that.

Too often, trans and non-binary people cannot have that pride because along with struggling with gender identity, sometimes they are not allowed to use the bathroom that correlates with their identity.

There was a story that has been circulating recently of a transgender woman in a Minnesota school who was using the women’s bathroom and was forced out of the stall while she was still using the toilet.

According to Pink News, “In the clip, the student is on the toilet with their trousers down while several adults, reportedly members of staff at the school, attempt to break into the locked stall.”

For one thing, this situation could have been avoided with gender neutral bathrooms.

For another, there was no reason for them to try to force her out of the bathroom. Events like this one happen more often than you think, and acts like this can be hurtful to a person.

To live in a society that doesn’t even try to acknowledge you the way you want to be acknowledged is hard enough without people purposely categorizing you.

It would be nice to know that people have the common decency to call you by your proper pronouns.