I’ve been waiting until after Christmas day to make this post, but some of our communities recently have had a lot of noise and upset over someone that uses neopronouns that most people are unfamiliar with.
So I want to make this clear. A persons pronouns are to be respected. This is true when the user is using neopronouns that you’re unfamiliar with. It’s true even if you think someone is trolling. Pronouns are not rewards for good behaviour. They aren’t only to be respected when you like the person you’re interacting with, or if their pronouns “make sense” to you. Trolls, spammers, twitter users, it doesn’t matter who they are, your options are to respect their pronouns, or to not engage with them.
I really want to re-iterate the importance of this. Gender diverse folk are undermined, invalidated and questioned at every step of our lives. As a community, we need to be working to undo that, not creating more of it, and that means there is no space for treating pronouns (including neopronouns) as a reward for good behaviour.
This isn’t a free reign for trolls and spammers. The rules still apply. Trolling, spamming, etc will continue to be dealt with, but it’s not an excuse to act as if respecting someones pronouns is optional.
Here’s a neat trick: if you don’t want to engage with someone, just block that person. It costs 0€ and the rest of us don’t have to endure a days-long quarrel.
One of the smaller benefits of these sorts of announcements is that they bring out people that just aren’t worth knowing from other instances who all but shout “I’m a piece of shit idiot!! Block me!!”. And that really helps save time.
That’s what I do. I’ve got absolutely nothing against probably most of the people I’ve blocked. Just at a certain point if I see the same account over and over posting stuff I don’t really vibe with I’ll block them and just let the ones that do enjoy that stuff have at it.
Side note: I especially love the ones that will like rage comment in places like YT/TikTok on “woke” stuff for example then cry that the algorithm keeps showing them more like it. Like… My Brother in Christ, you made the sandwich.
Removed by mod
You know what’s even worse for connecting with society? Actively discrediting other peoples existence within the queer community.
This is the exact same bullshit as “LGB drop the T” except it’s one step down. Neopronoun users hurt the whole queer community as much as trans people in general: they don’t, they’re a part of it.