Q. There is Canadian Federal legislation on the table requiring public servants to use transgender pronouns when addressing transgender people.
Considering that, as I believe, perhaps erroneously, that the Torah is not in favour of what citizens of the Western world consider inviolate and sancrosant, namely free speech, should one use such terminology when referring to transgender individuals or groups, as not doing so offends them?
Or, since the whole idea of transgenderism evolved from the perversion of homosexuality and lesbianism, is one obligated to separate oneself from association with this aberration by refusing to go along with the prevailing norms, even at the expense of another’s feelings?
A. In our times there may be a need for a singular gender-neutral third-person pronoun (such as “ze”), to be used when someone’s gender is unknown or when the individual is neither male or female. Such instances occur when addressing transgender people who don’t feel comfortable being addressed with masculine or feminine pronouns. However, the same may apply to computers or robots with artificial intelligence, or sexless fictional creatures in literature.
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that in principle, using them if they do become a legal necessity or an established speech practice, does not convey any agreement or acceptance of the status or the morals involved in the creation of transgenders. It is simply a communication term to address them as you would to a robot etc. However, the Rov recommends to avoid as much as possible, engaging in any contact with groups of questionable morals.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a
Important Numbers
