UT's pronoun post part of a larger college trend

• A post on UT's website suggesting students use gender-neutral pronouns created a stir.
• But other universities, including Vanderbilt, also are looking at the use of pronouns.
• The universities are aiming to use gender-neutral pronouns to be more inclusive.

Gender-neutral pronouns like ze and xyr pulled the University of Tennessee into the national spotlight and the crosshairs of legislators this week, but the school is far from a radical outlier.

Instead, it is one of many colleges across the country that is looking for ways to accommodate students who don’t identify as strictly male or female. Steps taken recently at Vanderbilt University, Harvard University and the University of California system, among others, represent a more aggressive push for gender-neutral pronouns than the column posted last week on UT Knoxville’s website. That post explained the use of gender-neutral pronouns and encouraged students and professors to discuss them.

At Vanderbilt, a more familiar gender-neutral pronoun was added to the student handbook in August. Variations of they are used as single-person pronouns alongside forms of he and she. A statement in the handbook said the addition was made in an effort to create "a community that is welcoming and inclusive to individuals of all gender identities and expressions."

Student leaders at Vanderbilt also are working with administrators to allow students to indicate the pronouns they use on class rosters and housing assignments.

At Harvard this year, students are getting the chance to indicate their preferred gender-neutral pronouns during registration, according to news reports. Also this year, students applying to schools in the University of California system can choose between six gender identities in an optional question on the application.

Other public schools in Tennessee also have taken steps similar to UT without as much controversy. Middle Tennessee State University added a glossary of LGBT terms to its website last summer that defined ze, hir and hirs as pronouns that might be "preferred by some gender diverse persons."

MTSU spokesman Jimmy Hart said the university added the glossary as a resource for students, not a policy, echoing UT's response to its own web post in which Pride Center Director Donna Braquet suggested students and professors should ask each other what pronouns they use, including gender-neutral options like ze or xe.

Despite UT's insistence that the post was not meant to become a mandatory directive, Republican lawmakers have reacted with outrage. State Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said the pronouns were a "ridiculous suggestion" and called for legislators to investigate the post.

State senators will meet to discuss the post and "higher education governance" next month.

As provocative as gender-neutral pronouns can still seem, they are not a new phenomenon. As early as 1851, English speakers took notice of “a gap in the language” and began to coin new gender-neutral pronouns, according to linguist Dennis Baron.

“The initial motivation was one of grammatical correctness,” he said. “Suddenly we are seeing them in a sort of back-to-school phenomenon” surrounding gender identity.

Baron, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has written extensively about the evolution of gender-neutral pronouns and attempts to make English the official language in municipalities across the United States. While he has been surprised by the visceral backlash some schools are seeing this year, it fits with his past research.

"It's easier to attack somebody's language than the person themselves," Baron said. "It becomes a stand-in."

An issue of 'life or death'

Many students and staff members at Vanderbilt have been following the controversy swirling over pronouns at UT.

“I heard about this from a student who was very worried for themselves," said Liv Parks, program coordinator at Vanderbilt's Office of LGBTQI Life.

Parks, who is gender non-conforming and uses the pronouns they/them/theirs, said the angry reaction to UT's post “scares me — for safety reasons." Parks cited statistics that suggest transgender or gender non-conforming people are more likely to fall victim to hate crimes and suicide because of their identities.

“The stakes are life or death in some cases," Parks said. “If it isn’t life or death, it’s mental health.”

Parks said efforts to broaden awareness of people who don't identify as male or female, like UT's post, can create a safer campus environment.

UT removes Web post on gender-neutral pronouns

“When you do open up spaces for students to use their own pronouns and their own names, you’re completely erasing the reason for them to be terrified,” Parks said.

Vanderbilt senior Kait Spear said engaging in conversations on gender and identity have broadened her worldview as much as her academic work in college. She serves as president of a student group that supports the LGBT community on campus and promotes discussions of gender and sexuality.

"Sometimes they can be tense, but I think that for the most part everyone comes out of it with a better understanding of how we can respect ourselves and respect fellow people,” Spear said.

Spear said she was worried that the firestorm that erupted over UT's post could prevent students from confronting the issue, or that it might keep students who are struggling with their gender identities from going to college at all.

“Shutting down discussions is only going to solidify anyone’s current view," she said. “If there’s no healthy debate, there’s no room for growth.”

Surviving the news cycle

Baron, the linguist, said it will take years to know if a gender-neutral pronoun will become an entrenched part of the English language. He acknowledged that the more "strange-sounding" options, like ze or xe, face an uphill climb.

But singular forms of they have a better chance of enduring, simply because people use those pronouns already.

"It's got a track record," Baron said. "I would guess that if we're moving toward such a pronoun that's the one that's going to win."

But before Baron can predict if forms of they will absorb the new meanings surrounding gender identity, those uses of the pronouns will have to move beyond college campuses and into mainstream culture.

"It's going to take several years at least to see how usage is changing," he said. "It's got to survive the news cycle, for one thing."

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.