This Pride Month, Think About The Power Of Your Pronoun

I recently made a small but deliberate change at work. I added my gender pronouns—she, her or hers—to my email signature. I did this to show my solidarity with the transgender and gender-nonconforming community. Others at the New York City Health Department have done the same. For example, those who identify as male could use he, him, and his, and people who are non-binary—meaning they do not identify as a man or a woman—may use one of the gender neutral signatures like they, them and theirs.

Some may label the use of gender pronouns as political correctness gone too far. It’s just a signature ― why inject issues of gender? But my signature already implies many things. My name, “Mary,” is a female one and also Christian; my listed medical degree suggests I might be referred to formally as “Doctor”; and my title is “Commissioner.”