EVIL HR LADY
DILEMMA OF THE MONTH
How to Best Handle Gender-
Neutral Pronouns
BY Suzanne Lucas
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CHASE
I have an employee who would like to be referred to
with gender-neutral pronouns — a singular “they”
instead of “he” or “she,” for example — but not all of
my managers are following the request. The employee
has come to me to point this out. Some coworkers
also aren’t accommodating the request, making this
employee feel excluded. What is our obligation to this
employee, and do we face possible legal repercussions?
Only one court (to my knowledge) has
dealt with a specific pronoun case.
Still, California has strong protections
in place for LGBT employees, and the
Supreme Court is currently deliberating
on a group of cases that will (perhaps)
determine if gender identity is protected
under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Regardless of how that turns out, Cali-
fornia courts are likely going to side with
protections, just as a federal court in
Ohio did in February when it dismissed
a lawsuit by a Christian professor who
challenged Shawnee State University's
requirement that he use preferred pro-
nouns of transgender students.
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comstocksmag.com | March 2020
All this means is that it can be legally
problematic if your employee feels dis-
criminated against because coworkers
use “he” or “she” rather than “they.” You
could certainly argue that if people at
the office refuse to use someone’s pre-
ferred pronouns, they are discriminat-
ing against that person.
But how do you deal with this? It
will require a little understanding from
everyone.
Politeness is important
If I tell you my name is Suzanne, and you
insist on calling me Sue, you’re rude. It’s
not important whether you think Sue is