[johnr2]

> Note that the author does not respect gender identity/pronouns

The article is written in the first person throughout and doesn't use any gender specific pronouns that I could see. How is that disrespectful? (My knowledge of German isn't good enough to read the article you linked).

[RealStickman_]

The article he linked basically argues that some words can be used to describe both genders, although the article used with that word has one certain gender. I'll try to show an example below.

First, in German there is a certain way to write words that appear gendered to include both genders.

Benutzerinnen -> male and female users. Apparently there's even Userinnen, as "User" is also getting more common in german.

The author of the article argues that that second part, (*innen), is unnecessary. Here's the first example he gives and a translation.

> Der Benutzer ist jemand, der eine Anwendung benutzt.

The user (male article) is somebody who uses an application.

> Der Benutzer ist eine Person, die eine Anwendung benutzt.

The user (male article) is a person (female article) who uses an application.

The author now argues that the subject in the sentence above would be both male and female, therefor user ("Benutzer") is not a gendered word.

In the following sentences the author replaces the user ("Benutzer") with names. Pay close attention to the articles. (der, die, das) They do not depend on the gender of the person, but instead on the second noun in the sentence. (Person, Mensch, Individuum)

> Maria ist eine Person, die eine Anwendung benutzt.

> Martin ist eine Person, die eine Anwendung benutzt.

<name> is a person who uses an application.

> Maria ist ein Mensch, der eine Anwendung benutzt.

> Martin ist ein Mensch, der eine Anwendung benutzt.

<name> is a human who uses an application.

> Maria ist ein Individuum, das eine Anwendung benutzt.

> Martin ist ein Individuum, das eine Anwendung benutzt.

<name> is an individual who uses an application.