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Dr. Bob Bratton wrote:
Sorry if this sounds like a rant. I live in a NYC suburb and for the last 15 years have worked as an assistant track coach for the local high school handling the distance runners. The pay is minimal but I enjoyed working with the kids. Anyone who has coached high schoolers knows that a significant percentage of any track team have no interest in the sport but use it as an opportunity to give people grief. The first day of practice last year, while I was taking attendance, a new girl ( I'll call Tabitha) announces she is non-binary, and her pronouns are they and them. I'll admit I slip a few times and call Tabitha "she" or "hers", which she demands I change. A couple weeks into the season, things hit a boiling point when I say "Tabitha, you need to go to the long jump." She responds that I am disrespecting the nonbinary and I have to use "they," as in "Tabitha, they have to go to the long jump." I tell her that is not the way it works and I keep using "you." The next week, I'm called into a conference with the AD, Principal, Tabitha and her mom, who is a social justice coordinator for a local charity. The principal ends up telling me that the school has decided students can choose their own pronouns and if Tabitha wants to be called "they" rather than "you," I'll have to accept it. So, instead of saying "Tabitha, how are you feeling?" I have to say "Tabitha how are they feeling?"
Later on I ask her "Tabitha if they are nonbinary, why do they only run the girls races?" Her mom complains I am humiliating the non-binary.
The end result, I apply to coach again this year and am told I am not being rehired because of microaggressions against the nonbinary.
Anyone have any suggestions??
Thanks for the laugh!