To think sacking this volunteer to a U.S charity was a complete over reaction (Title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[HermioneWeasley]

The MS society in America has dismissed a 90 year old woman who has volunteered for them for SIXTY YEARS because she raised a question about pronoun use in emails.

they have doubled down on this decision issuing the following statement

“Recently, a volunteer, Fran Itkoff, was asked to step away from her role because of statements that were viewed as not aligning with our policy of inclusion.”

how can the people running these organisations be so out of touch with how people feel about these issues? They’re insane and frankly
cruel.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13088453/ms-society-slammed-firing-elderly-volunteer-pronouns.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top

Beggars belief!!!

Horrendous

It’s interesting that the article only shows the email terminating her as a volunteer but doesn’t include details of what the volunteer actually said in the statements found to be concerning, unless I’m missing something? It’s hard to judge without seeing both sides of the situation.

I wonder if there is more to it than this, or if it was used as an excuse. Some volunteers can be very difficult to deal with, regardless of age.

Yes I read the whole thing and can't see what it is she has said to cause it.

This.
I deal with volunteers in almost the exact same situations. It is likely not them innocently ‘questioning’ it.

"not aligning with our policy of inclusion.”

I wonder if their 'policy of inclusion' makes reference to the legal protection we all enjoy, to not believe in gender ideology. Thereby demonstrating their inclusiveness, to people who don't believe in that religion. I'm going to go out on a limb and say no.

I suspect that there was more to this ...

here is the email I have just sent them :

I understand from a news story that you as an organisation enforce pronouns in employee and volunteer emails. Please can you confirm this? I don't support anyone colluding with this extreme right wing misogynist political philosophy, and would like to withdraw my support from your organisation if this is true.

I don't think there's enough information to judge.

I won't put my pronouns in my email. If anyone else wants to use theirs, I have no issue. Respect goes both ways. I respect any one who chooses to and I hope they can respect my decision not to.

I watched a clip from an interview with the volunteer Fran. According to her she saw messages that came in from "Freda Smith (she/her)" and asked what the pronouns thing meant. When told it meant they were showing they were "all-inclusive" she asked what that label meant because it didn't make sense to her and that the National MS Society and the local group she volunteered for had always been inclusive.

According to her, her only "offence" was to ask someone to explain what the pronoun declaration was for. There may of course be more to it but I've seen nothing from her (or from the MS Society so far) to suggest that she expressed any particular views about trans people or abused anyone.

They can indeed.

I've had to involve the police with a volunteer who just would not accept that their behaviour was inappropriate, and that the organisation was not obliged to accept their volunteered services just because they were free.

Another charity not worthy of the name. Doesn't charity begin at home, ie with the people who have supported the cause for 60 years?

What a bunch of nasty, spiteful, politically correct idiots.

They won't be getting a penny out of me in future.

She queried the stupid practice of putting pronouns in a bio. The USA has lost the plot and we are not far behind unless we stand up to this shit.

The entire goal of this social movement is to further undermine women. Go figure

She is fucking 90 FGS. And why shouldn't she query this utter ridiculousness? Honestly...

Does the policy of inclusion include ageing volunteers with values set in a different era? Or is the society inclusive in a judgemental, excluding, ageist way?

It isn't in any way "inclusive" to add additional, non logical, non grammatical pointless inclusions into writing in this way. It is the opposite - it makes the text harder to read and excludes many people with any sort of reading difficulty, or low comprehension in English.

It also demonstrates political allegiance in a totally inappropriate way, completely out of place in ANY work place

how can the people running these organisations be so out of touch with how people feel about these issues? They’re insane and frankly
cruel

It isn't a case of "being out of touch with how people feel". If your commissioners and funders tell you "these are the conditions for your funding, like it or lump it", "feel" doesn't come into it. You are utterly dependant on that income, so what they say goes.

Just because someone has supported a charity for years doesn't mean they get a free pass to do whatever they want tbh

I suspect there is more to this and she did make more comments than "just asking what it meant"

This.

Well, we will wait and see but the charity have said they are “reaching out to her” which suggests they aren’t accusing her of bigoted vitriol. If she had wished death on trans people or something I’m sure their response would be slightly more vigorous than that our staff acted with good intentions on a challenging issue and we are getting in touch with Fran now.

My guess is her comments were what would be viewed by some as “ignorant”, maybe objecting to pronouns or refusing to include hers or something.

unless she has said something horrific, this is utter cruelty by the MS Society.

I am well aware she is ‘fucking 90’. And I also haven’t said she SHOULDNT question it. I had said that there is likely more to it than her asking ‘hello. Why do you have pronouns in your email?’ I also haven’t given my opinion on use of pronouns at work either way. So why you’re coming for me I’m not sure.

I suspect this publicity is going to cost them more than the hours donated by this one woman (she/her?).

And all the ‘some volunteers are hard to handle?’. So what? So are plenty of paid employees and their managers are paid to manage this. Would a paid employee be dismissed without due process in this situation?

I don’t think some people realise to what extent this country runs on volunteers and frequently they are overlooked and disrespected.

I hope everyone is aware that this is taking place in the US and is not connected to the UK MS Society. Really unfortunate for them to have the same name and to potentially lose support over something completely unrelated.

Absolute joke