I am neuro-divergent. I struggle with remembering minutia that aren’t, coincidentally, just luckily the minutia that I glimpse, once, and never forget. I state this not as an excuse but as a statement of fact and I am terrible at remembering people’s pronouns. I cannot even remember people’s names. When I see people I know, I can remember who they are, what we have done together, where we have been, what we have seen and even the tone of voice they might use to exclaim at an occurrence or upon some eventuality but – yet – I often cannot remember their names. Pronouns are like parts of their names.

And, so, I tend to address everyone with “they” / “them”.

In my limited experience, this only tends to annoy the anti-woke conservative types who renounce the very concept of pronouns and believe that one should only ever be addressed as “he” / “him” – assuming that a penis hangs between their thighs – or “she” / “her” otherwise. (A musing: How do they know? Also, what if it’s cold? Or they’re upside down? Quandaries within quandaries!)

BUT… I am open minded and I can believe that others, too, might be offended by my cop-out, including open-minded, non-mysoginist, non-bigots who do understand why people elect to be addressed under non-Victorian pronouns.

I have recently had reason to pause and wonder about this. I struggle with pronouns but I do try my best and so, I’m asking: for which reasons might someone object? Tell me, LGBTQ+ community.