<story><title>Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/edward-snowden-nominated-nobel-peace-prize</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CWuestefeld</author><text>This is clearly something that we as a society are going to have to wrestle with.&lt;p&gt;It seems reasonable to me that this person, having XY chromosomes and all the hardware that go with them, may be correctly referred to using masculine pronouns.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s something to be said for respecting the wishes of the individual in how they&amp;#x27;d like to be addressed. But there&amp;#x27;s definitely a point at which that drifts off into absurdity. Just because I can claim descent from Henry VIII doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that I can reasonably expect people to address me as &amp;quot;lord&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;So I&amp;#x27;m interested in respecting people, but think we need to let this percolate through society first, and determine where to draw reasonable lines, before you accuse someone of disrespect for failing to honor someone&amp;#x27;s alternate world view.</text></item><item><author>ck2</author><text>If you respect Manning, please stop saying &amp;quot;he&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;guy&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>dferlemann</author><text>Fuck the world. He&amp;#x27;s action is true to himself. For that, I respect the guy.</text></item><item><author>swalsh</author><text>Manning released a bunch of documents, but how did he change the world?</text></item><item><author>ck2</author><text>Everyone has already forgotten Pfc. Manning rotting away for 35 years.&lt;p&gt;I saw a &amp;quot;free Snowden&amp;quot; sign the other day which I thought was asinine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Pxtl</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a time and a place to be pedantic, and this really isn&amp;#x27;t it.&lt;p&gt;Transgendered people go through a heap of terrible, terrible crap and the least we can all do is give them the dignity of using their identified pronoun.  If &lt;i&gt;anybody&lt;/i&gt; has earned that respect, it&amp;#x27;s ms. Manning.&lt;p&gt;I mean really, how the heck does it hurt &lt;i&gt;anybody&lt;/i&gt; to say &amp;quot;She&amp;quot; instead of &amp;quot;He&amp;quot; after you&amp;#x27;ve been informed that&amp;#x27;s not how she identifies?  Does it really matter that much?  Obviously the extreme SJW flamewar reaction you usually see on misgendering is excessive, but after being &lt;i&gt;politely&lt;/i&gt; informed that&amp;#x27;s not how she identifies, how are you harmed by going along with it?&lt;p&gt;Will the ghost of Plato arise and smite you down for failing to properly class something?</text></comment>
<story><title>Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/edward-snowden-nominated-nobel-peace-prize</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CWuestefeld</author><text>This is clearly something that we as a society are going to have to wrestle with.&lt;p&gt;It seems reasonable to me that this person, having XY chromosomes and all the hardware that go with them, may be correctly referred to using masculine pronouns.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s something to be said for respecting the wishes of the individual in how they&amp;#x27;d like to be addressed. But there&amp;#x27;s definitely a point at which that drifts off into absurdity. Just because I can claim descent from Henry VIII doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that I can reasonably expect people to address me as &amp;quot;lord&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;So I&amp;#x27;m interested in respecting people, but think we need to let this percolate through society first, and determine where to draw reasonable lines, before you accuse someone of disrespect for failing to honor someone&amp;#x27;s alternate world view.</text></item><item><author>ck2</author><text>If you respect Manning, please stop saying &amp;quot;he&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;guy&amp;quot;.</text></item><item><author>dferlemann</author><text>Fuck the world. He&amp;#x27;s action is true to himself. For that, I respect the guy.</text></item><item><author>swalsh</author><text>Manning released a bunch of documents, but how did he change the world?</text></item><item><author>ck2</author><text>Everyone has already forgotten Pfc. Manning rotting away for 35 years.&lt;p&gt;I saw a &amp;quot;free Snowden&amp;quot; sign the other day which I thought was asinine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>king_jester</author><text>&amp;gt; It seems reasonable to me that this person, having XY chromosomes and all the hardware that go with them, may be correctly referred to using masculine pronouns.&lt;p&gt;Gender != your chromosomes and gender != your &amp;quot;hardware&amp;quot; or any other body part for that matter. Gender is about social identity and structure.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; There&amp;#x27;s something to be said for respecting the wishes of the individual in how they&amp;#x27;d like to be addressed. But there&amp;#x27;s definitely a point at which that drifts off into absurdity. Just because I can claim descent from Henry VIII doesn&amp;#x27;t mean that I can reasonably expect people to address me as &amp;quot;lord&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Laying claim to a royal lineage is not the same as having a gender. Also, lord is a title and we are talking about pronouns, things used when talking about anyone.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; So I&amp;#x27;m interested in respecting people, but think we need to let this percolate through society first, and determine where to draw reasonable lines, before you accuse someone of disrespect for failing to honor someone&amp;#x27;s alternate world view.&lt;p&gt;We already know where to draw reasonable lines: Manning has already publicly stated her gender. You have disrespected this person by misgendering them. Manning&amp;#x27;s world view is not an &amp;quot;alternate&amp;quot; world view and you are being incredibly transphobic.</text></comment>