It doesn’t make it more accurate, but it’s not surprising that people feel like pronouns = gender when we’ve made sharing pronouns mandatory but there’s no normal place in conversation to bring up one’s actual gender. Pronouns remain the closest thing to gender info you’ll get?

Like I don’t want to see a world in which gender is mandatory to share either, or a world where people feel MORE pressure to out themselves. I’m just noticing that it’s really weird that it’s not very easy or normal to share more specific info casually.

Like how long do I leave people on the hook just not knowing this basic fact about me? When do I bring it up? How do I bring it up? Why does it feel so awkward and weird to bring up “out of the blue” and tell people what your gender is?

I’ve been in environments with folks who were like, clearly non-cis, where we shared pronouns easily, but then just.... awkwardly never clarified any further. A classmate I’ll know for months, stuck like.... are they like, a guy, or non-binary, or like, what

And to be extremely clear, I am not talking about the inclination of trans people to keep that info private on purpose. I am musing about the desire to be out and understood correctly, but the practical aspects of that being weird and awkward and non-existant.

And for further clearness... This entire line of thinking is only really applicable in reasonably safe environments where you can expect basic safety and respect. It’s all a completely different conversation outside those bubbles where you can’t expect those things.