It's nice we don't call black people ns, negroes or coloureds anymore, and was mindful of what they wanted to be called despite people growling over have to learn 'appropriate language'. It's nice we don't call gays fags for the same reason. It's nice we don't call people with Down's Syndrome, mongs or mongoloids and hopefully America will catch up on not using 'spastic' and 'retarded' as much as they currently do.
Having said that, the suggested gender neutral pronouns are ham fisted, but maybe you should be asking people what they want to be called, before you start calling them? It only takes a few seconds. I'm sure you can all spare it.
If someone asked me if it was OK to refer to me with masculine pronouns I'd be at least slightly weirded out. And would probably answer something like "uh....OK, yeah"
Poll
