We are all aware of how damaging it can be for individuals to be misgendered. Misgendering can damage someone’s self-confidence as well as having an impact on an individual’s mental health.
Getting someone’s pronoun right promotes inclusivity and helps all people feel seen and recognised.
As part of our council wide drive to equality we have been considering how we can best minute our formal meetings.
We will review this to see how its working but we will try to apply the right pronouns and when we are not aware of this will either use neutral pronouns, job titles or full names. We will not assume pronouns from appearance.
Lots of us have started to sign off our emails with our pronouns and wear badges which is obviously helpful. However this is not universal and a matter of personal choice. I would however be grateful if you could drop me a note letting me know your pronouns. We will hold this data securely and for this purpose only. This is obviously not compulsory but as explained without this we will use neutral terms, jobs titles or full names. Which we choose will sometimes depend on the grammar (clarity remains a primary driver for us) but we will look to ensure we properly reflect in particular contributions by women.
I attach a guide (from Stonewall) to pronouns generally and changing your email signatures.
END
I work with this LA, not for them. But I am seriously pissed off with it, especially the continued use of Stonewall as some sort of benchmark for best practice, rather than a politicised lobbying group pushing an ideology. Is there any point in challenging it? How?