Georgetown's Student Bar Association Asks Law Students to List Their Pronouns in Support of Nonbinary Peers

We’re living in a kinder society.

Kinda.

It’s at least true where pronoun affirmation is concerned, as corporations and educational institutions move to let everyone know their chosen signifiers are respected.

For an example, look no further than Georgetown University.

As indicated by a Thursday email obtained by The Washington Free Beacon, the college’s top-rated law school is raising the bar where transgender support is concerned.

Per the Beacon, the Student Bar Association asked students to make clear their preferred pronouns on LinkedIn, Zoom, and in their individual email signatures.

For those disinterested, the Association made a request: Stand “in solidarity and support” of your “nonbinary” and transgender peers by listing your pronouns.

The email laid out the importance of it all.

From the Free Beacon:

Displaying pronouns “helps to ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender identity, will be correctly addressed” in class, the email [stated]. Students who identify as their biological sex should also display their preferred pronouns to avoid “isolating” students who go by different pronouns, including “they” and “ze.”

The Bar Association went to bat for boldness:

“Students may be afraid to out themselves if they do not know their environment is supportive. When we all include our pronouns as part of our daily life, it normalizes the action of doing so. This five-minute gesture contributes towards a more welcoming and friendly community for all.”

Included in the email: the “Speak Up Pocket Card” created by Teaching Tolerance — the Southern Poverty Law Center’s educational arm.

From a Teaching Tolerance webpage:

THE SPEAK UP! PLEDGE

Commit to respond to everyday bias and bigotry. Sign and place this pledge card in your wallet, book bag or desk drawer, or post it on your wall. Also use these pledge cards as a part of a campaign in your workplace or school, making as many photocopies as you need. Post the pledge in public places, encouraging others to join.

Because what we say matters.

I PLEDGE TO SPEAK UP!

In pledging to respond to everyday bigotry, I will:

Speak up when I hear or see bigotry;
Question and identify bias when I see it;
Be mindful of my own behaviors;
Promote and appeal to higher principles;
Set limits on what is said or done around me;
Seek help and help others to work against bigotry; and
Remain vigilant and persistent.

Georgetown’s no stranger to the drumbeat of progress.

As covered by RedState’s Brandon Morse in 2019, the school was eyeing slavery reparations.

School newspaper The Georgetown Voice followed up last August:

A landmark referendum to pay reparations to the descendants of 272 enslaved people sold by the university in 1838 is the most prominent effort to reckon with the legacy of slavery on Georgetown’s campus. However, after it was passed by the student body, the effort effectively stalled with the university Board of Directors.

The Georgetown Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Project is still uncovering ways in which Georgetown perpetuated and upheld the institution of slavery, and student activists, faculty, and independent researchers continue to advocate for reparative justice.

Back to gender identity, it isn’t just schools promoting pronouns: