MCC Daily Tribune

Highlighting International Pronouns Day

Did you know that today, October 20th, is International Pronouns Day for 2021?

This day serves as a reminder about an important call to action: to honor people's multiple, intersecting identities. It is a common courtesy to refer to an individual by the pronouns that they determine for themself. This is also basic to human dignity. A number of different pronouns are commonly used in the English language, whereas, gendered personal pronouns are not used at all in some languages. On International Pronouns Day, attention is drawn specifically to third person personal pronouns, which are used to describe an individual when you are talking about them. Third person pronouns in English are often gendered, which means that assumptions are commonly made and then those assumptions continue to play out when people speak about each other. Misgendering particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people, however, if a mistake is made, it is possible to recover! For more information about recovering from mistakes when using pronouns, visit MyPronouns.org.

We hope that there will continue to be growing comfort levels around sharing and asking about pronouns within our college community. Please consider viewing the brief video clips below to learn more about starting these important conversations:

2-minute Video - Pronouns: How Do You Ask?

5-minute Video - What Are Pronouns?

3-minute Video - LGBT Equity Center: Sharing Your Pronouns

Warmly,

MCC Counseling Center & Disability Services Team

Morgan Kennell
Counseling Center & Disability Services
10/20/2021