Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for December 20, 2015

How about just introducing yourself and remembering their name? Works great everywhere I have used this technique.

Hi, the name’s Ray, but you can call me Heshetheyit.

“They”?

Addams family?

One of my daughters has a close friend who goes by “them.” I admit I have a hard time getting my head around it.

I once read this “Those that mind, don´t matter and those that matter don´t mind”. Works for me!

@Fat Vulcan

“Awww…Mongo straight.”

I have an all purpose combination of she, he and it but I’m not getting traction with it.

Seems like “they” would pretty unusual. How many conjoined twins are there in the world? And I don’t think anyone would want to be called “it” even if they are gender neutral. As a parent of a high school senior, this is not on my list of things to worry about next year. I guess I leave that to others.

It was a lot easier in 1960. The other gender (there was only one) was a half-mile down the road.

My daughter’s high school had a kid who was transgender. She had been a boy up until a couple years ago. She graduated and is doing fine. She also did as well as any other average teen during the high school years. The top administrator said this is the way it is and we will respect this person. Some parents freaked out at first. (A small number). After that, everything returned back to normal and everyone was fine. I think most people realized that if anyone was going to be at risk, it was not going to be the other students. Anyway, the hoopla over it was short-lived and limited to just a few parents while it lasted.

College students, the most sensitive species on the planet. And we have our, ‘everyone gets a trophy’, society to blame for it.

One could always avoid referring to people in the 3rd person.

We are not amused.

Gender-neutral cubicles are a great idea – no more ‘ladies’ queue twice as long as the blokes, no more dilemma for a dad out for the day with a shy little daughter.

While some of the sensitivities over language can get a bit meh, getting rid of gender divisions in situations where they’re unecessary is surely a good thing.

My mom was ahead of the curve for this one. She called everyone “Hon” from the time she met them. And everyone who stepped in the house felt like they were family because of it.

If you can’t tell the difference, it makes no difference.