When I was born, the doctors, nurses, even my own family, assigned me as male. As I grew older, I came to realise (at around 18 years old) that I was not in fact a man. It took another couple decades to understand what this meant because I’m also slow.

Here’s a list which may grow over time, based mostly on other people’s work, for replacements of gendered terminology that I’d prefer you use around me. I know it’s hard to break a habit, and that goes for me as well.

On Twitter (where I get most of my queer news these days after Yahoo destroyed Tumblr), someone suggested the term “sib”, short for “sibling”, to replace “sir”. That tweet planted the seed for this post.

Old   New
You’re the man You’re awesome
Thank you, sir Thank you, sib
He is a writer Randolph is a writer
What’s his problem? What’s Randolph’s problem?
Some say he once performed on stage Some say they once performed on stage
Do you have any brothers and sisters? Do you have any siblings?
This is Uncle Randolph This is Randolph

 

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