Trans professor does not give students choice about using their pronouns? Read the tweet.
'I advise students that if they don't, I'll just use they/them or their name,' the professor tweeted.
Only a minority of the LGBTQ community uses preferred pronouns.
An Australian professor recently said that he ‘misgenders’ students when they choose not to use a preferred pronoun in class.
”I do suggest if you’re teaching online, you ask students to put their pronouns next to their name. Some students, like some staff, don’t want to,” Sandy O’Sullivan tweeted Jan. 9. “Fair enough, I advise students that if they don’t, I’ll just use they/them or their name.”
I do suggest if you’re teaching online, you ask students to put their pronouns next to their name. Some students, like some staff, don’t want to. Fair enough, I advise students that if they don’t, I’ll just use they/them or their name.
— Prof Sandy O’Sullivan (Wiradjuri, trans they/them) (@sandyosullivan) January 9, 2022
Many transgender individuals, such as O’Sullivan, use “they/them” pronouns to protest against male and female labels.
New York University explains on its website that, “Using the wrong pronouns for a person. Misgendering someone can be done intentionally or unintentionally, and it can have a long-lasting harmful impact.”
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O’Sullivan, a professor of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University, also suggested in his tweet that students would not have such a choice about pronouns in his class.
”Misgendering, in my experience towards me, only ever happens for one reason: they don’t believe my gender & nothing I do can convince them. So all I need is for them to comply,” he tweeted the same day.
Each meeting I’ll be raising it at the beginning, but it will still happen persistently from some. Misgendering, in my experience towards me, only ever happens for one reason: they don’t believe my gender & nothing I do can convince them. So all I need is for them to comply.
— Prof Sandy O’Sullivan (Wiradjuri, trans they/them) (@sandyosullivan) January 9, 2022
One professor at Brooklyn College wrote in their syllabus that intentionally misgendering someone, “will result in immediate dismissal from class for that session. Continued abuses will result in disciplinary action with the appropriate administrators.”
[RELATED: Staff surprised by the unfamiliar pronouns approved for campus use]
Last year, Gallup reported that 5.6% of Americans identify as LGBT. But not all of those individuals use alternative preferred pronouns.
Only 25% of LGBTQ individuals between 13-24 years old use “they/them exclusively, a combination of he/him, she/her, or they/them, or neopronouns such as ze/zir or fae/faer,” according to a 2020 survey by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that serves that demographic.
Campus Reform has reached out to Sandy O’Sullivan and Macquarie University. This article will be updated accordingly.
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