In honor of it being spooky season, I wanted to focus on what many of us are thinking about with Halloween around the corner – what to wear!

This month we’re going to turn the focus a little bit, with the goal of getting cisgender people to self-reflect on the way they interact with their gender.

So someone close to you – a family member, friend, or even a colleague just came out to you and told you about their LGBTQ identity. This could look like many different things; they could be coming out as gay, bisexual, or perhaps they are coming out as transgender or nonbinary. As always, the first thing is to take your time with understanding!

Everyone uses pronouns all the time —  I, you , we,  this, she.

It’s very likely that you know someone who is going through a gender journey, and part of that can include changing pronouns. Slip-ups can happen, people make mistakes, but it’ll mean a lot more to the person if you keep the following things in mind.

I have a transgender friend who complains about how it’s hard to be trans. I want to be a good friend, but I don’t understand why they choose to be transgender if it’s hard for them.

When I came out to my parents as bisexual, they were supportive. (Yay!) However, now they keep assuming that I want to date all my friends. How do I get them to understand that being bisexual doesn’t mean I automatically like everyone?

I have a friend who says she's bisexual, but she just got engaged to the guy she's been dating for a couple years now. Does that mean she's decided she's straight?

I have a friend who wants everyone to use the pronouns they, them, and theirs instead of he or she. I want to be supportive, but I’m having trouble with the grammar. Isn’t the word they supposed to refer to multiple people? Am I supposed to say “they is” since I’m talking about one person or “they are”? 

We have a new policy at work that encourages people to include their pronouns in the email signature line. I don’t understand why we’re supposed to do this. I’m not transgender, and my name is traditionally feminine, so people aren’t likely to get confused about who I am. Should I still include them?