The Washington Post in a Friday profile about a fired transgender diversity officer at New College of Florida used “zir” as a pronoun in reference to the fired diversity officer — Yoleidy Rosario-Hernandez — and also noted that Rosario-Hernandez “uses ze/zir pronouns.”
Readers in the comments section of the story didn’t appear very receptive to the use of “ze” and “zir.”
Rosario-Hernandez’s firing, the paper said, was part of newly appointed conservative trustees’ promises to “root out diversity programming” from the Sarasota school.
The Post begins the profile’s third paragraph with the following sentence: “Rosario-Hernandez spoke with The Washington Post about zir recent termination and what it may say about the debate over college diversity efforts in Florida and across the nation.”
The rest of the profile consists of an interview with Rosario-Hernandez — who says, “I do identify as BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of color] and trans …” — as well as comments from the school and Rufo on the diversity officer’s termination.
Readers weighed in on the matter:
“Ze/zir pronouns are absurd, and the Post should not have played along with this gibberish,” one commenter declared.
“Well, zir, guess it’s time to burnish that resume,” another commenter wrote.
“Ze apparently has taken a [Diversity Equity and Inclusion] position at Ringling College in Sarasota,” another commenter quipped.
“I can’t take pronoun people seriously,” another commenter said. “Good bye. Find another fantasy.”
“‘Ze’ should consider this an opportunity to reconsider ‘zir’ career choice and find a line of work on the productive side of the ‘maker/taker’ divide,” another commenter noted — after which a different commenter added, “‘Zir,’ please. You have to get it right! Otherwise ze might sue.”
Read the full story here.
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