He certainly is a distinguished gentleman.
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I was trying to work out if that was Sean Penn in the supporting role; knock me down with a heavy-weight boxing glove, it is Joe Bugner!
Can we please acknowledge that two of the three quoted articles have transgender slurs IN THEIR HEADLINES. This would not go unremarked for women or people of color.
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To be fair, the article that used “she-male” in quotes did so using the specific term that DeMezzo uses to identify themself.
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You are correct, I probably should have acknowledged that those terms were terminology that DeMezzo used to describe themself. Knowing that, I left them there without comment, because I want to be dictating DeMezzo’s identity for them — but I could have done a better job of contextualizing that.
Sorry about that. I will keep that in mind the next time I’m looking into something like this.
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I don’t buy for a second that that nuance is why that media site used the term. If it is, then it needs to be prefixed with “self-titled” or similar. Black People may use the N word to refer themselves, but that doesn’t give the right for a white headline writer to do it.
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The very first sentence of that article states: “Aria DiMezzo, the self-described “she-male” anarchist running for Cheshire County Sheriff…”
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And yet the headline, which is all most people will read, does not. It also does not change my point that the reporter does not have the right to use the N word just because the person calls themself that. Let me know when you’re done mansplaining trans slurs to a trans person so I can go on with my day.
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I really dislike the repurposing of the pronoun they/them. I’m not against people who do not identify as he or she (and don’t want to be called it) want a pronoun to that expresses their identity, but the use of they/them can cause unnecessary confusion.
Consider the following example:
Aria went out last night. They went to a nightclub. They met up with Peter. They danced for a bit and then they left.
You have no idea if just Aria left or if they both left together.
It isn’t repurposing as much as it is rediscovering. Singular they has a long history.
If you really want to complain about it then why aren’t you also complaining about singular you? It should be thou.
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It’s not really a repurposing, as the use of “singular they” dates back to the 14th century. The preference for gendered pronouns, usually taking the male versions as the default, was introduced in the 1800s. So using “they” as a default is re-establishing an old standard, not repurposing the word.
I’ll agree that your sample sentence is unclear, but it’s easily fixed. If Aria and Peter left together, we can say, “They danced for a bit and then they both left.” Sure, it takes a little more work to speak or write clearly when using they as a pronoun, but I’d argue that it’s worth the effort to show respect to others. But then, YMMV.
Edit: ninja’d! 
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I was unaware of the “Singular they”. That is an interesting link and lead to a following link Gender-neutral language which was also interesting. Just goes to show that language is alive and changes.
I’ll try and use it (or avoid it) in my English in the future if necessary. For me that use of they/them will take some getting used to, but then again that is almost always true for change that you do not initiate yourself.
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I’m still getting used to it myself, but it comes easier with practice. 
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Wait, what? *mind explodes*
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I use “y’all” pretty rigorously for plural “you.”
Because I try not to be an asshole where it’s avoidable, I use a singular “they/them” when somebody has indicated that they prefer it. But it does lead to ambiguity and unclarity if the person doing the writing isn’t careful, which is often. (And, speaking only for myself, I find it kind of grating.)
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I grew up in a part of England that still uses a variation of thou (thew) as the second person singular pronoun. It might be part of the reason why I easily adapted to they as an ungendered singular pronoun.
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Argh.
Can we PLEASE not celebrate covidiots on BB?
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“Y’all” is a great collective pronoun, and I’m happy to use it to disambiguate. If “they/them” is confusing, change the sentence:
“Frank and Cass were bored. They both wanted to get out of the house.”
Like has been said above, practice will normalize it for your ear, and civility will nudge you to ask first (“what are your preferred pronouns?”)
Re: the topic – good for them. I’m glad to see they stirred up a little shit.
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You have an odd definition of celebrate. If mine differs so substantially - feel free to ignore me.
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Apologies, I am upset that this post (Thom Dunn’s) post does not mention that the candidate is actively fighting a mask mandate, and I was referring to this post (Thom Dunn’s) celebrating the candidate. Your post (KathyPartdeux’s) in the Coronavirus thread is what tipped me off, I know you’re not celebrating them, I know you are totally righteous in your attitude towards covidiots.
I may not always make myself clear when I am steamed 
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