In the UK, a new gender neutral option has been added to the titles available on drivers’ licences and other official documents. As well as ‘Miss’, ‘Mrs’ and ‘Mr’, the title ‘Mx’ is now widely used by a number of British institutions including the Royal Mail, government departments and some universities. The title provides an […]
Sweden’s official dictionary, to be released in April, will include a gender-neutral pronoun, editors at the Swedish Academy have announced. In addition to the male pronoun “han” (he) and the female pronoun “hon” (she), the new gender neutral pronoun “hen” will take the function of referring to singular people who prefer not to use the […]
A new smartphone app launched in the US aims to help transgender, intersex, non-binary and gender non-conforming people find safe public bathrooms. The app, entitled ‘Refuge Restrooms’ allows users to search for safe restrooms on the map function, as well as provide locations, directions and comments. According to the Refuge Restrooms website, many of the […]
For centuries the German language has allocated masculine (der), feminine (die) and neutral (das) gender articles to its nouns, but due to changing attitudes towards gender roles, they may be set to change. Mark Twain wrote despairingly of this in his essay ‘The Awful German Language’, in which he said “In German, a young lady […]