Today I spent some time working closely with one of my teammates. This individual used the word "she" for me when talking with myself and my team manager. I did not have the energy to say anything about it. Then, she caught herself and switched to "he".
I smiled.
When I was wrapping up to go back to my desk, I took a moment to thank her.
She started apologizing for needing to make the correction.
I do not need an apology for being human. We all are. We all make mistakes. I told her that it means a lot to me that she was thinking about it. To catch oneself is to take an active step to overcome the pre-programmed assumption that anatomy equals identity. That is worth as much to me as someone using my preferred pronouns effortlessly.
Anecdotes from running the Genesee Valley Gender Variants meetup group and being openly genderqueer in the Rochester, NY area.
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