nap@druxo.UUCP (ParsonsNA) (03/14/85)
Just want to share a small victory (I love to celebrate)...
Last night, Crossroads in Faith Ministries, an organization working in the
field of domestic violence, adopted a set of bylaws containing the
following footnote:
Throughout this document, the personal pronouns "they," "them," and
"their" are used to indicate third person *SINGULAR* when the referent
may be either female or male (a grammatical form practiced for
centuries by reputable writers such as Shakespeare, Shaw, and Scott
Fitzgerald).
One reason this is significant is that the organization is one of typically
"traditional" or "conservative" church people who have come to recognize
that traditional language transmits values and behavioral models that
contribute to attitudes leading to domestic violence.
It's a small, but satisfying, step...
Nancy Parsons
AT&T ISL