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Path: utzoo!utgpu!utfyzx!oscvax!lsuc!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcdchg!heiby
From: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Newsgroups: news.admin,misc.legal,soc.women
Subject: Re: Proposed lawsuit
Message-ID: <10783@mcdchg.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Jul-88 18:53:06 EDT
References: <12165@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <4461@sphinx.uchicago.edu> <12179@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer, Schaumburg, IL
Lines: 24

era1987@violet.berkeley.edu writes:

> I see.  Well, there's a black man who is an FBI agent who has
> endured hell being harassed by his fellow agents because of
> his color.  He hasn't quit his job, as you seem to feel he should.

	[other examples of heavy-duty harassment and discrimination]

I think the point Mark has missed is that *most* people, at this time,
don't consider death threats, beatings, and murder to be quite the same
thing as referring to someone as "she" rather than "he".  I know it's
hard to believe, but I myself would rather be referred to as "she" than
have my family threatened with dismemberment.  Sounds crazy?  I know.

Using the "wrong" or "undesired" personal pronoun is not a very nice
thing to do.  It's just that most people with a social conscience would
rather work to help oppressed people keep from being beaten bloody than
be called nasty names, like "she" and "her".  Maybe when people aren't
being beaten because they are women and aren't being killed because their
skin isn't the "right" color, then people will have time to be upset about
pronouns.
-- 
Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP	Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix
"Failure is one of the basic Freedoms!" The Doctor (in Robots of Death)