We’ve all heard the various horror stories from around the country arising from the “incorrect” use of people’s pronouns. These cases are almost invariably incidents where some trans person throws a fit when someone “misgenders” them by using the pronoun corresponding to their actual gender. But this story from Houghton University in western New York is different. In fact, it’s the opposite. Houghton is a small Christian university where the administration sticks to traditional values, including matters involving trans issues. Last September they even put a policy in place directing the staff not to include their pronouns in the signature files of their email accounts. Two of their dorm directors were using pronouns in their accounts and refused to comply. They were both fired. But this wasn’t even a transgender debate. (Associated Press)

Shua Wilmot and Raegan Zelaya, two former dorm directors at a small Christian university in western New York, acknowledge their names are unconventional, which explains why they attached gender identities to their work email signatures.

Wilmot uses “he/him.” Zelaya goes by “she/her.”

Their former employer, Houghton University, wanted them to drop the identifiers in line with a new policy for email formats implemented in September. Both refused and were fired.

As noted above, the two dorm directors’ first names are Shua and Raegan. Shua is a male and Raegan is a female. Neither are trans. They explained that their names are unusual in the United States and people not familiar with them frequently guess the wrong gender. They were just attempting to avoid any confusion.

But a policy is a policy I suppose. The school said there were to be no pronouns used in official university email accounts and these two refused to comply with that policy. Does it seem reasonable to fire someone over this? No. Does it seem defensible? Well, from a strictly legal standpoint, I suppose so.

You know, I’m old enough to remember a time when a person who unknowingly assumed someone’s gender incorrectly would just be politely corrected and everyone would get on with their lives. Trust me… with a name like “Jazz,” I’m familiar with the concept. Jazz sounds like it might be short for Jazmine. But I was never offended. (That trans kid with the reality TV show isn’t helping matters any, I can assure you.)

But since the advent of the transgender social contagion, pronouns are the new declaration of war. Intentional or not, “misgendering” someone leads to you immediately being labeled some kind of “phobe” and banished from social media. You might even lose your job. And when a place like Houghton University tries to eliminate the controversy by canceling the entire pronoun labeling trend, they can still run into trouble.

Back on the left side of the aisle, the madness isn’t slowing down either. Check out this report someone sent me on Twitter this morning. A young college student was given a score of zero on a class assignment for writing the phrase “biological women.” It’s not allowed because using those two words “reinforces heteronormativity,” which is now apparently a thing. You really can’t make this stuff up.

College student gets a 0 on an assignment for using the words “biological women.”

The professor wrote that although the proposal was good, the term “ ‘biological women,’ is not allowed in the course because it further reinforces heteronormativity.”

I’m at a loss for words. pic.twitter.com/NtFsaEcZ6O

— Right Side of History™️ (@xxclusionary) May 22, 2023

If you’re worried that you’ve tripped and fallen down a rabbit hole at this point, don’t worry. You’re not alone. All you can do is laugh sometimes, so if you haven’t seen it already, turn on the volume and check out this video from Remy called “Clown World.” We’re all living in it now.