Creating an inclusive social environment is something we ought to strive for. We live in a diverse society and must find it within ourselves to respect others even if we may not see eye to eye.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has made great strides in the past decade, legally and culturally. We have come a long way, but we still have much that needs changing.

Proper pronouns is one area of such progress. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence from the sciences demonstrating there is no gender binary: gender is merely a social construct. For too long we’ve carved up our world into boys and girls.

Some believe that by referring to an individual by that person’s preferred pronoun (a non-Sisyphean task, mind you), this will invariably lead to a language free for all. We’re told that if we acknowledge non-binary genders, our common vocabulary will go out the window.

We must be careful with slippery slope arguments, though. Unless one can draw good logical inferences that allow us to proceed down the slope, there’s no reason whatsoever to take the argument seriously.

Our changing attitudes must be followed by a change in our language. By recognizing the equal dignity and worth of those individuals that don’t conform to society’s cookie-cutter gender roles, we create an environment that embraces these individuals and respects the person they are, not the person society thinks they ought to be.