pronouns – Memphis Flyer

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a coalition of 17 states in filing a lawsuit against the federal government over new rules that would mandate pronoun respect in the workplace.

In September, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted to approve updates to its workplace harassment rules. The new rules reflect changes in such laws, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to protect employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity (Bostock v. Clayton County), the #MeToo movement, and emerging issues such as virtual or online harassment.

The rules were published and given a period for public comment, and became federal law in late April.

“Harassment, both in-person and online, remains a serious issue in America’s workplaces,” EEOC chair Charlotte A. Burrows said in a statement at the time. “The EEOC’s updated guidance on harassment is a comprehensive resource that brings together best practices for preventing and remedying harassment and clarifies recent developments in the law.”

The EEOC said between fiscal years 2016 and 2023, more than a third of all discrimination charges received by the agency included an allegation of harassment based on race, sex, disability, or another characteristic covered by the laws enforced by the agency. Also, since fiscal year 2018, harassment has been alleged in over half of federal sector equal employment opportunity complaints. Among the 143 merits lawsuits that the commission filed last year, about 35 percent of them included an allegation of harassment.

However, Tennessee AG Skrmetti said companies should be able to use whatever pronoun they choose to use for their employees. As he has done in several such lawsuits in the past, Skrmetti claims the federal government is overreaching into powers given to states.

“In America, the Constitution gives the power to make laws to the people’s elected representatives, not to unaccountable commissioners, and this EEOC guidance is an attack on our constitutional separation of powers,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “When, as here, a federal agency engages in government over the people instead of government by the people, it undermines the legitimacy of our laws and alienates Americans from our legal system.

“This end-run around our constitutional institutions misuses federal power to eliminate women’s private spaces and punish the use of biologically-accurate pronouns, all at the expense of Tennessee employers.”

Skrmetti also complained about EEOC’s new rule that would make an employer liable if it limits access to a bathroom or other sex-segregated facility, such as a shower or locker room, based on biological sex and not on gender identity, the AG said. Skrmetti claimed employers also may be liable if a customer or other non-employee fails to use an employee’s preferred pronouns or refuses to share a restroom with someone of the opposite sex.

Tennessee is joined the lawsuit with attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

More broadly, the EEOC’s new rules protect an array of what the agency calls ”legally protected characteristics,” including race, skin color, religion, disability, age, and more. Workplace harassment includes saying or writing an ethnic, racial, or sex-based slur, forwarding an offensive or derogatory “joke” email, mocking a person’s accent, groping, touching, or otherwise physically assaulting a person, and more.

If a harassment claim is filed, business owners should investigate the matter and take corrective action, EEOC said. That action can include firing the employee, but it isn’t required. The employer can also mandate informal counseling, give a written warning, mandate harassment training, suspend the employee without pay, reassign them, or demote them to a non-supervisory position.

Bianca Phillips

A transgender flag flies over OUTMemphis.

Eagle-eyed emailers have noticed something new in some email signatures: pronouns.

Signatures are those few lines of information at the bottom of an email that tells the receiver basic information about the sender, details like their name, title, company, phone number, address, and more. Some senders’ signatures around Memphis now include their preferred gender pronouns, or personal gender pronouns, sometimes just called gender pronouns, or, more simply, just pronouns.

All of the words are ways to describe a person when you are talking about them. Typically, those identifying as male will use “he/him/his;” those identifying as female will use “she/her/hers;” and some transgender people, gender noncomforming people, and others use the gender-neutral “they/them/theirs.” However, there are more sets of pronouns out there.
Lambda Legal

Kayla Gore, of Memphis, speaks during a news conference Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in Nashville.

“Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves is basic to human dignity,” reads an explanation from those behind International Pronouns Day, set this year for October 16th. “Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender nonconforming people.”
[pullquote-1] LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have popped up at some of Memphis’ largest organizations and corporations. Now, preferred personal pronouns (sometimes called PGPs), are popping up in work culture, including email signatures.

Mary Jo Karimnia is the residency manager at Crosstown Arts. She added “she/her/hers” to her signature over the summer but wished she’d done it sooner. She said preferred personal pronouns, “in reality are not ‘preferred’ pronouns, just pronouns.”

“As the residency manager for Crosstown Arts, part of my job is to welcome the entire community to the residency program,” Karimnia said. “Although my she/her pronouns are somewhat predictable, this signals that I am accepting of other people’s pronoun choices.”
Justin Fox Burks

Ellyahnna Hall

As gender issues and preference rise to the mainstream, discussing them and the pronouns that go along with them is becoming more common but maybe still tricky to those not accustomed to it.

That’s why the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQI) Resource Center at the University of California Davis devised a website to help. There, you can find a list of many of the lesser-known, gender-free pronouns like ”xie/hir/hir,” “ey/em/er,” “co/co/cos,” and more. You can also find some easy ways to talk about pronouns with others.

So, the site suggests you ask, “What pronouns do you use?” You could also share yours by saying, “I’m Jade and my pronouns are ze and hir.”
[pullquote-2] Pronouns in email signatures (and other spots in the workplace) caught on early among Memphis health care providers, said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. But they are now popping up in signatures of other businesses “that may or may not have anything to do with gender identity, or sexual orientation, or health.”

Justin Fox Burks

Cole Bradley

Quinn’s pronouns — “she/her/hers” — were displayed on her work name tag during an event recently. She said part of the work of OUTMemphis is to serves the transgender community here, “to make the entire world a comfortable place for people who are trans.” This includes her email signature, where she shares her pronouns.

“In the past five years, and certainly in the past 15 years, the visibility, the legal advocacy, the political narrative, and the services that are available to our trans community has expanded nationally in every way,” Quinn said. “Regardless of your gender expression, we really believe that gender expression and gender identity should be the choice of each individual. We believe that you should have the choice of the way you are referred to, what you’re called, and how you’re classified by the world.”

Back at Crosstown, Karimnia said being upfront about pronouns is “a good way to let people know in advance that we are a queer-friendly place.”

“We also ask for pronouns on our (residency) application,” Karimnia said. “We make a point of introducing ourselves at our first dinner meeting with residents using pronouns.

“This creates space for people who use pronouns besides she/her or he/him without singling them out. It can also be an educational tool for those who aren’t yet used to this convention.”