What they wish to be called

Seriously?

I won’t stand for any misgendering, says Holyrood presiding officer

The newly elected Kenny Gibson says when it comes to preferred pronouns, MSPs should respect what people wish to be called.

There’s no such thing as “preferred pronouns” meaning inaccurate third person singular pronouns to refer to people who think they can change sex. No, legislators of all people should not promote the lie that sex is a matter of assertion as opposed to physical reality.

As for “respect what people wish to be called” – what if they wish to be called King Charles, or Betty Boop, or Asterix, or Pope Barbara, or Doctor Strangelove?

Holyrood’s newly elected presiding officer will crack down on MSPs who misgender their new trans and non-binary colleagues.

In an interview with The Times, Kenny Gibson, who opposed Nicola Sturgeon’s gender reform legislation in 2022, said he would take incidents as they come.

But he made it clear that he would not tolerate politicians deliberately or maliciously refusing to use the chosen pronouns of the newly elected Green MSPs Iris Duane and Q Manivannan.

Blah blah blah – so now cranky teenagers get to make the rules for what legislators can say? We don’t get to “choose” the pronouns other people refer to us by which, and legislators should not promote the lie that people can swap sex, let alone be forced to do so.

“You have to respect what that person wants to be called,” Gibson said. “And if someone doesn’t do that, then you have to call that out in the chamber and you have to take the appropriate action.”

No you don’t have to respect what any person wants to be called if that want is ridiculous or childish or worse. It depends. In ordinary life sure, we call people what they want to be called, but when things become not ordinary, we may have damn good reason not to. Trump wants to be called a brilliant gorgeous rock star of a man and we do not have to call him that.

“If there’s a clear issue of it looks like it’s being deliberate, then you have to act on that because you can’t have someone, a member of the parliament, feeling undervalued or disrespected.”

Think about how female members of the parliament feel.