Certain
transpeople want to be identified by the pronouns "they" and "them."
They ignorantly argue that "singular they pronouns go all the way back
to Shakespeare." These individuals need to go back to public school and
get an education in English grammar. The pronouns "they" and "them" have
always been plural. They were used singularly as a replacement for "he/she" when the identity of the subject was unknown. The use of "they" and "them" as a replacement for "he/she" is bad grammar. Period.
Have
any of these people read any works from Shakespeare's era or earlier?
Do any of them have a degree in English? I am willing to bet that, no, they do not. Here are some examples of their arguments:
- "If a person is born of a ... gloomy temper ... they cannot help it."— Chesterfield, Letter to his son (1759)
- "Now nobody does anything well that they cannot help doing"— Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive (1866)
- "Nobody in their senses would give sixpence on the strength of a promissory note of the kind."— Bagehot, The Liberal Magazine (1910)
Where
you find the word "they," you can replace it with "he/she." "They" is
simply used in general instances where you are unsure of the identity of
the specific person it applies to, much the same way that "he/she"
would be used.
A human being can only be either a male, a he, or a female, a she. When a man or a woman stands before you, it is improper and incorrect
to refer to "them" or "him/her" as "they." When you stand in the middle
of a crowd of human beings, I dare you to point out with accuracy the
"theys" and "thems" in the crowd. All you see is hes and shes, which you can easily identify with pinpoint accuracy. The entire mixed group of men and women can be referred to plurally as "they" and "them," but individual males and females cannot!
Like
all anti-intellectual know-nothing half-wit fools, transpeople attempt
to build strawmen arguments based on illogical reasoning. Yes,
transpeople are human, but these people suffer from mental insanity and
demand the rest of society accommodate that mental insanity rather than
getting them the help they desperately need to face and accept reality
and truth. Mocking and making fun of a transperson is no different than
mocking or making fun of any other handicapped individual.
Transpeople
and their mindless supporters argue illogically and fallaciously that
if transpeople were integrated more into society and people used their
imaginary self-made "pronouns," that there would not be so many
transpeople committing suicide. That argument is in contradiction to the
facts. In societies where transpeople are more than integrated and
accepted, where people go out of their way not to "offend" them, why are
their suicide rates climbing? Simple. Because accommodating their
mental insanity does not change a thing. They know that they are not what they are pretending to be and want others to pretend they are
To sum up, "they" and "them" have always
been plural pronouns. They have, and are, used as singular pronoun
replacements for "he/she" where the general identity of the specific
individual is unknown. Proper English grammar uses "he/she," whereas our
everyday speech tends to use "they" and "them." For example:
Our new teacher will be coming through the door any moment. I hope they have a better curriculum planned than our previous teacher.
...or...
Our new teacher will be coming through the door any moment. I hope he/she has a better curriculum planned than our previous teacher.
"They"
and "he/she" is used when the identity of the specific individual is
unknown. The speech is general, applying to whoever fits the bill. But
as soon as that teacher walks through the door, there remains no more
question as to whether the teacher is a he or a she. Those are the only two
options. So pull your head out of the sand and start firing the neurons
between your ears, unless your head truly is completely vacuous.