San Diego State ‘Pronouns 101’ Event: Misgendering a Person Is Like Stabbing Them

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San Diego State University is encouraging students to use gender-neutral terms like “folks” instead of terms like “guys” as part of a larger effort to eradicate gendered language on campus. One presenter told students that being misgendered is “like being stabbed.”

According to a report by The College Fix, administrators at San Diego State University are encouraging students to do away with gendered terms like “guys” in favor of gender-neutral alternatives like “folks.”

San Diego State University held a workshop on Wednesday called “Pronouns 101” in which school leaders provided students with resources that would help them embrace gender-neutral language.

Mile Reyes, an administrator, claims that language is supposed to evolve over time. “Some languages are more gender-neutral and are more able to incorporate gender-neutral pronouns in language, but when that’s not inherently in the system, we make it work…because [language] is meant to evolve,” Reyes argued.

He told students that referring to a transgender person with incorrect pronouns can make them feel “gross.”  “Referring to somebody with the wrong pronouns can make them feel just gross, it’s just disrespectful and it makes people feel invalid or invisible, and dismissed, alienated, dysphoric, and a bunch of unpleasant things,” Reyes explained.

The “Pronouns 101” event was only one of several workshops that took place on Wednesday’s “Transgender Awareness Day.” Wesley Palau, the coordinator of San Diego State University’s Price Center, told students that being misgendered is “like being stabbed.”

“I remember when I was first starting to transition and people would misgender me…It kind of felt like being stabbed, you know, but at the same time you’re being stabbed and you’re hurt, but you have to turn around and tell the person, ‘Oh actually don’t use this knife, I know you wanted to use a pom-pom to massage me or something instead of the knife that they went for.’” Palau said during the event, “It’s like having to do the labor of the emotional work while you’re kind of wounded yourself.”

Breitbart News reported in June 2018 that students at Hull University were told that they would receive lower grades if they used gendered language on writing assignments.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more campus updates.

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