PRIDE COMMUNITY
⭐️ Communities in the Spotlight ⭐️
Click on any of the flags below to find out more about these Pride community areas and to see specific resources for each identity.
Other terms
What it means to be an Ally
What it means to be Gender Non-Conforming
What it means to be Gender Fluid
What it means to be
Pansexual
What it means to be Cisgender
What it means to be Polysexual
Pronouns
You may see pronouns a lot, in email signatures, on social media and in online meetings/webinars.
If you're less familiar with the LGBTQ+ community, or if you don’t have to think about your gender regularly, this may be unusual to see and could initially be a little confusing and/or difficult to relate to.
If you’re thinking, should I put pronouns in email signatures? Keep reading to find out more about what it means and why it matters.
Why put pronouns in email signatures?
Being an ally every day is important, having pronouns in our signature can set a norm and encourage others to do the same.
Showing your pronouns shows support and solidarity for our transgender and non-binary friends in our acceptance of all genders, but hopefully eases the burden on our trans and non-binary colleagues and acquaintances from having the same conversations again and again.
As a society, we are making others’ lives easier by declaring our pronouns, letting people know how we identify to eliminate any confusion and therefore minimising the chance of anyone being misgendered or “outed”, with no risk or burden whatsoever to the cisgender community.
The importance of pronouns in email signatures
Email signatures are a way of showing people your name, how you want to be referred to. It’s a way for the person receiving the email to understand the preferred way for them to address you.
By adding pronouns into your email signature, it shows the person receiving the email which pronouns they should use when referring to you and talking to you directly.
An act as simple as adding pronouns to email signatures can lead us on the way to normalising pronouns and by doing this we can hopefully make the world a more accepting and inclusive place for all.
Using different pronouns
Up until recently, the only pronouns most people had heard of were he/him/his and she/her/hers. However, as the non-binary community has become more visible, more and more people are becoming aware of non-gendered pronouns such as they/them/theirs & ze/zir/zem.
Unfortunately, trans and non-binary people are often misgendered – and at times deliberately.
Adding our pronouns to our email signatures, social media profiles and stating them at the start of meetings is a simple step cisgender people can take to enable those from the non-binary and transgender communities to feel more seen and recognised.
Find out how to add your pronouns via the Google HUB here