[persolb]

This is a good example of where they is extra confusing too. It would be better if English had separate singular/plural versions of they.

If Sarah goes by ‘they’, “They was pissed” sounds wrong and most people would actually speak “they were pissed”… but now it is a three way ambiguity: Julia pissed, Sarah pissed, both pissed.

This feels like an example of a bigger failure mode, but I can’t nail it down. Something like ‘groups are resistant to short term change even if it is a clear Pareto improvement’

[specialist]

Ya. I preferred the sci-fi narratives with zir, zim, etc. But nobody asked for my opinion.

The history of pronouns for female, male, neuter, and none-of-above tracks with cultural notions. English's pronouns will mosdef evolve to accommodate the new norms. We're merely in a transitional phase.