The reality of working with trans people will mean you slip up and use the wrong pronouns sometimes. These laws are going to add fear to speaking to trans people let alone hiring them. And what if they’re abused?
I like the intent but I think these will be counter-productive to helping the trans community.
The key word in the guidance is “persistently” misgendering. So if someone gets the pronouns right 95% of the time, that’s hardly “persistent”. These guidelines target employers/people who willfully and purposefully mis gender/discriminate. If you’re trying to claim these rules make you afraid to talk to trans people, you might want to take a long hard look at your own biases/phobias.
I can see the concern, as a trans and nonbinary person, about the phrasing of the headline. Casual readers will totally think the actual guidance says “if you fuck up a person’s pronouns, you go to jail” or whatever.
But not the guidance itself. We need more protections against intentional, malicious misgendering as verbal harassment. Which is usually less “she said— oops, they said—“ and more stuff like “(female coworker) put has pronouns in her signature? I thought she was a REAL WOMAN”
(The second being a real example from a friends work place. Funny thing is, friend is stealth trans and the coworker being misgendered is cis, but i digress)
But yeah all that aside I think the real context is misgendering when someone needs the bathroom, e.g. “you’re in the wrong bathroom” type comments. Where we really need stronger protections.
We’re smart enough to know when someone slips up on accident and when someone is being an asshole. We’re not idiots.
Yeah I mean you’re still people with emotional processes who understand social queues. Not like you’re robots who can’t process these things.
