Pronouns won’t kill anyone, unlike Republican public health policy

Towards the end of my teaching career, I had trans and nonbinary students come out to me in class. It was new to me. I was older, and I didn’t really get it at first. I hadn’t grown up with that kind of language. I didn’t know what “nonbinary” meant beyond vague headlines. But when a student asked to be called something different than what was on the roster, I did what any decent human would do: I listened.

And here’s the thing. It had no more impact on my life, or on the kids around them, than using a nickname. It didn’t disrupt class. It didn’t confuse anyone. It didn’t trigger an identity crisis in the honor roll. What it did do was make that student feel safer. And when kids feel safe, they learn better. That’s not an opinion. That’s backed by decades of data. Safety and respect are foundational to education.

So when I hear people scream that using someone’s preferred pronouns is “unscientific,” or that it’s some cultural catastrophe, I have to wonder. Have they actually met a trans kid? Have they ever stepped inside a classroom? Or are they just yelling at clouds again because they’ve run out of ways to explain why their policies keep setting the planet on fire?

Because let’s be honest. Republicans aren’t just denying climate change, evolution, and vaccines anymore. They’ve taken it a step further. Now, when called out for their anti-science crusade, they don’t defend their positions. They just pivot. “But what about men becoming women?” they screech, as if that’s the checkmate.

It’s not checkmate. It’s not even chess. It’s a tantrum with a microphone.

Let’s be clear. No one ever died because someone asked to be called they. But people have died, and are dying, because Florida now treats once-in-a-century floods like seasonal allergies. Because a governor with a Harvard Law degree pretends sea-level rise is a hoax and calls carbon dioxide “plant food.” Because toddlers are getting whooping cough in states where science class has been replaced by “God Did It 101.”

Meanwhile, drag queens are your emergency. Not the fact that Fort Lauderdale floods during high tide. Not that the Great Salt Lake is vanishing. Not that coral reefs are dying faster than your party’s commitment to facts. No, it’s that someone born male asked to use the women’s restroom. That’s the existential crisis.

This isn’t policy. It’s performative pearl-clutching. It’s deflection with a flag lapel pin.

And lately, the fallback move is to declare that pronouns are “unscientific.” I saw a Facebook comment that summed up the new lazy talking point: “Why not just tell people their pronouns are unscientific and they should only use words in an approved way? Not like it’s their right to modify the language in a way that suits them. Is it?”

Ah, yes. The same crowd who believes vaccines make you magnetic suddenly cares about linguistic purity. Let’s break this down.

Pronouns are not scientific instruments. They’re not chemical compounds or DNA sequences. They’re linguistic tools, part of a living, evolving language. The only reason you say “you” instead of “thou” is because society collectively agreed to change. The only reason we don’t say “ye” anymore is because the way people used the language shifted. English has always been shaped by actual usage, not by royal decree or some Orwellian language czar with a microscope.

The singular “they” isn’t some woke plot hatched in a vegan co-op. It’s in Shakespeare. Jane Austen used it. The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes it. Hell, if we’re being honest, most people already use it instinctively when they say things like, “Someone left their phone.” You’ve probably used someone’s preferred pronouns by accident and survived. No rash. No divine punishment. No rift in the space-time continuum.

So yes, it is someone’s right to influence how language evolves. That’s how all language works. It’s not just a right, it’s a fact. Language grows by usage. That’s not radical. That’s reality. If you think people shouldn’t have the power to influence language, then I assume you’re still calling your wife a “wench” and asking your boss for a “ye olde paychecke.”

And before anyone cries “free speech,” let’s remember this. No one is arresting you for misgendering someone. But people are reacting to your refusal to be respectful. That’s not censorship. That’s consequences. It’s the free market of decency.

Meanwhile, actual science, the kind done in labs, peer-reviewed, and built from generations of human progress, is under siege by the same folks screeching about pronouns. They don’t want trans kids to be called by the names they choose, but they’re totally cool with rewriting climate models to appease ExxonMobil.

They’ll cry about biology when it comes to bathrooms but ignore it entirely when it comes to greenhouse gases. They’ll thump a Bible to deny a trans woman’s identity but skip the parts about stewardship of the Earth and caring for the sick.

Republicans used to be the party of personal responsibility. Now they’re the party of performative resentment. They can’t defend lying to their voters about climate science for thirty years, so they pivot. Can’t explain why childhood diseases are back? Distract. Can’t square the cognitive dissonance of backing oil companies while their beachfront donors build stilts under their mansions? Time to yell about bathrooms.

Let’s go even further. A trans kid existing does not affect your mortgage rate. It doesn’t raise your insulin costs. It doesn’t bankrupt rural hospitals, outlaw abortion, or rig district maps like a Vegas slot machine with a Jesus fish glued on. The climate crisis? That affects your air, your crops, your coastlines. Vaccine denial? That kills your grandma. Evolution denial? That’s why we’re still fighting over whether Noah had dinosaurs on the ark.

And yes, I’ve read the Bible. It doesn’t mention mRNA, carbon dioxide, or transgender people. But it does say something about not bearing false witness. Something about loving your neighbor. Something about not being a fear-peddling hypocrite with a microphone and a lobbyist on speed dial.

So the next time some elected oil puppet starts howling about how “men can’t be women,” maybe ask them to explain why Florida now has saltwater in its aquifer. Ask them why the Midwest keeps flooding while they gut the EPA. Ask them why they’re still pushing creationism in schools while banning books with the word “gender.”

Spoiler alert: it’s because they don’t have answers. Just outrage.

Pronouns didn’t melt the ice caps, pal. Your party’s greed did.