Pronouns in my email signature

I am not brave at work but, if this were ever enforced, I would inform HR that my gender identity, like my sexual orientation and religion, is none of their business.

I don't always know if that person is male or female so I always put "Dear Sir/Madam ... Yours faithfully ".

Same.... but I write Madam/Sir. Because little things

"in a lot of NHS emails,"

Likewise. And it must depend where you are because in some areas it's rainbow lanyards and laces everywhere. Plus all of the posters and decals about whichever relevant month/week/festival it is. There are some places where the rainbow never goes away.

I've yet to see similarly-promoted disability or race initiatives.

I email people regularly, the system just replies "Hi firstname", I don't know whether quite a few of the names are for a man or woman. Strangely enough, it makes no difference to the content, it's not relevant.

I mean their pronoun, not their preferred pronoun.

I find it annoying and confusing. I'm a woman, but I don't feel it is necessary for people at work to refer to me as a woman. I'm a person, doing my job, so I'd prefer they /them... But if I add that to my emails, people will then assume I'm not associating with being female... Gender bias is really real, so why advertise it? Anyway, that's my unclear rant over. Pronouns are creeping in at my work and I am tempted to add they /them, perhaps with a note about gender bias.

I regularly communicate by email with people who have non-European names and, due to my ignorance, I don't always know if that person is male or female so I always put "Dear Sir/Madam ... Yours faithfully ".
I would be hideously embarrassed to insist anyone with a non- European name told me their preferred pronoun unless they volunteered it. It would sound like I couldn't be arsed to be polite or was making a big deal about it.

"in a lot of NHS emails,"
Haven't come across it in my neck of the nhs woods yet, but then I thought most people wouldn't bother with the rainbow lanyards when they arrived and yet they are everywhere. I still think most people are wearing them because they wanted a new lanyard and the rainbow is pretty, but they certainly serve as a reminder to watch my speech. I wish I dared wear an Adult Human Female lanyard.
Anyway, these threads are very useful, I shall be prepared for the next assault on common sense.

And as an aside my trust spent about £2500 on the rainbow lanyards.
Putting that in context a specialist ward has had their order for some special hypoallergenic dressings which we use occasionally in my own department turned down because they are too expensive. Sorry, I don't know the price, for an accurate comparison, but they are not used often so I doubt it compares to £2.5k .

"I feel that expecting everyone to declare pronouns in their email signature forces people who may be unsure of their gender, or not yet ready to come out, to declare something they may be uncomfortable with. Whether or not I myself am in that situation, shouldn't be something I have to declare. By declining to include my pronouns in my signature I will be helping to take the pressure off any colleague present or future who needs the space to not have to declare their gender definitively. I won't be offended by any pronoun use people use of me, given that I haven't declared which they should use."

Sorry but that made me smile. Isn’t ‘out’ the new ‘in’?

They can’t make you can they? Decline - it’s noones business what you think your gender is. There a so many these days it’s impossible to keep track.

if I said my pronoun was it people would think I was being totally serious and would refer to me as such.

I wonder what would happen though if we did adopt 'It'? I think it would show just how ludicrous this is.

Could you have a quiet word with HR and suggest that it is problematic forcing people with trans identifies to out themselves in this way?

As well as (as mentioned upthread) that it can be detrimental to women by highlighting they are, there is also another issue that it can be problematic for people who are "still figuring out their gender identity"
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/13/pronouns-gender-he-she-they-natalie-wynn-contrapoints

Good suggestion GC

Ignore it. If they query it, tell them you find it triggering and you're not ready to talk about it.

@Bananabixfloof , if that is the case I will ignore it until my manager insists I do it. And then I will tell him I'm not doing it because I don't see the point. Or the Maya appeal will sort it.

People who refuse, assuming the pronoun request is mandatory, are outing themselves as holding GC views

No - they would be outing themselves as someone who thinks HR have come up with more of the useless, pc rubbish HR specialise in.

Here is the superb response on the other thread. You could use parts of this:

I would quietly come out as non binary too - perhaps in a reply to the email thread with the other two colleagues copied in. However I would add that you choose to continue with sex-based pronouns because it can be confusing and distressing for some people, notably people with autism, to be compelled to change the way they use the English language.
Out woke her!

Oh goddess absolutely HandsOff! By reminding people you are female you instantly invoke bias. I use ‘Dr Surname’ in a lot of my professional communications. It really does make a difference to how I am treated, sadly.

Otherwise, I would say that my pronoun is 'It'
Or use the superb reply on the other current pronouns thread on FWR.

Pronouns- your words, you choose.

Option a) just "forget"/don't get around to it. Normal refuge for senior management imposed things everyone else thinks are stupid. Does everyone else actually do it?
Option b) oh that's difficult for me. I'm not sure which to use. I'll have a think. Then if anyone pesters you they're harassing a potentially trans person. No lie, do you have a female gender identity? I don't.
Option c) challenge it as indirect discrimination. Reminding people of your sex increases subconscious sexist biases.