By DAN FAGAN
According to a “Gender Inclusion 101” training video produced recently for students and facility at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, misgendering someone (calling someone by the wrong pronoun) is an act of violence.
“Gender is a very complex and personal topic,” says Casey McMillan, during the video that runs for 72 minutes.
McMillan begins the video describing herself as someone with pale skin and using the pronouns she/they. McMillan is the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility professional for the Department of Equity and Compliance for the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“It’s important for our campuses and communities to be safe and welcoming places for people of all genders and we will share how participants can be active allies to the LGBTQ21A+ community,” said McMillan.
The YouTube channel for the Department of Equity and Compliance for the University of Alaska has but one subscriber.
The lengthy video mostly features college-age kids complaining about being misgendered.
“It is constant and such a prevalent part of our society,” said one student. “Being misgendered happens countless times in a day and that builds up really quickly. It can be difficult for a person to hear over and over again because it invalidates your identity over and over and over again. “
Another student on the video took issue with the term “preferred pronoun.”
“It’s not a preference, it’s who we are. You need to use those pronouns. It’s literally an extension of me like an arm or leg. It’s just as much a part of me as a vital organ. My identity, although you can’t see it, needs to be validated just as much as the fact that I have five fingers and five toes.”
Another student on the video compared misgendering with violence: “Misgendering a trans person is an act of violence, and it is. It’s an act of psychological violence. It’s a denial of one’s personhood.”
Along with the “Gender Inclusion 101” video, posted two weeks ago and having had only four views as of this writing, UAF has published a brochure entitled: “Gender Diverse UAF: Understanding and supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming Nanooks.”
One section of the brochure is entitled: “Potty in Peace.” It reads: “If you’re using the restroom with another person, regardless of their gender identity, please respect their privacy, respect their identity, carry on with your day, protect them from harm.”
The section offers a map of gender inclusive bathrooms on the Fairbanks campus.
Another section reads: “Intentionally using the wrong pronoun or misgendering someone is harassment. If you are not sure which pronoun to use, ask the person what pronouns they use or introduce yourself with your pronouns. This acts as a prompt for them to do the same. It’s also acceptable to use the singular pronoun ‘they’ to describe someone you don’t wish to assign a gender.”
The brochure also tells students to, “Show your pride support for the queer community by adding a UAF pride badge to your e-mail signature.”
The brochure chastises students who call a trans person by their old name after they transitioned to a new gender.
“It is deeply offensive and disrespectful to continue using a transgender person’s old name when referring to them. Always use a transgender persons chosen name.”
UAF also has an inclusive language list. You should not use the word homosexual. But referring to someone as gay is OK.
Instead of addressing a crowd with “ladies and gentlemen,” students should say “honored guests.”
Words like mailman, fireman, and policeman are offensive. Instead, students are instructed to use mail clerk, firefighter, and police officer.
Instead of saying female or male, it’s appropriate to use “assigned female male at birth.”
Only 20 percent of full-time UAF students get their degree on time. That’s well below the national average.
College Factual, an organization ranking universities, listed UAF as 1,079th among 2,241 colleges and universities across America in 2023.
When it comes to funding, Alaska’s University system receives a larger share of its budget from the state than any other land-based university in the country.
Dan Fagan is a reporter for Must Read Alaska. His email is [email protected].
Whoever came up with these diversity rules is a whack job, totally!
Equity = Communism. Diversity = Anti white racism. There is no such thing called “gender”. There is sex, male and female.
Brilliant concise and on-point, George!
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This kind of neo-Marxist nonsense and insanity is the REAL violence — it is violence against sanity, normality and reality.
You left out the fact that equity is a tool the leftists are using to destroy conventional relationships. Spouse to spouse, parent to child, sibling to sibling, and friend to friend.
All of it is to favor placing the all powerful State as the primary relationship in all lives.
I’m sorry, NO! We will not surrender normalcy and sanity to sexually confused stupid people who believe there are more than two sexes. Just say no and laugh at them.
If I’m around such confused people, I’ll just stick to “Hey you!” and let them respond or go cry in the corner.
hey steve, laurel just told me the same thing before i read your comment.
I’ll “misgender” and “dead name” the hell out of those pyschos.
Lol 1 subscriber …. You can’t make this stuff up . Nobody cares what gender you are if you aren’t a over hyper loon that whines about being misgendered . Kids these days are horrible and weak as hell
Just another reason I’m moving to the middle of no where when I retire.
This old man is not willing to boot-lick this nonsense. One is born with gender – it is not “assigned”. Sexual expression and preference is complex, but does not require “validation” from everyone else. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. While I have some sympathy for victims of persecution, in-your-face demand for cultural change is a mistake. Get over your fake offendedness folks. The loud demands for attention and acceptance tell me that you don’t accept yourselves.
College biology classes need new textbooks. The laws of Nature have been rewritten by confused LGBTQ wackjobs. And they want everyone else confused too.
They meant to say, using the CORRECT pronoun is an act of violence. A man pretending to be a woman is NOT a woman. His correct pronouns are ‘he’ and ‘him.’ He can delude himself all he wants, but he has no right to force others to participate in his delusions.
You can’t disagree, because I identify as infallible. ?
Ha!
You can’t identify as infallible unless your infallibility is fluid. Get with the times, Dan. We’re all a bunch of liquefactious jello devoid of pectin.
It was one thing to avoid using certain words in our speech. And for the most part, we abided by this request and tried to be less offensive to those who could not handle certain words. And granted, some words are now avoided as a courtesy.
But NOW, we get to have compelled speech. “You WILL use certain words, and if you don’t, you’re hateful.”
But further, “You WILL use certain words about me when I am not around (pronouns).” Pronouns are used in the absence of a person. “You” and a proper name are used when a person is present. But “she, he, they” and other variations are only used when the person is not present (naturally).
This is becoming a bridge too far for many of us. We are now being compelled to ONLY use certain words about someone BY that same someone when he or she isn’t even around under the threat of a violent accusation.
Tolerance at its finest.
This country deserves to fall to China if this crap is truly getting normalized.
We are letting mentally damaged children run society.
Masked Avenger, the purpose of this State Sponsered Propaganda is to humiliate you by forcing you through Public Pressure to affirm an unnatural lie. When you Yea and Amen this lie you become a liar yourself. Liars soon lose any sense of probity and even self-esteem making them weak and easy to control further on.
We’re headed for cultural revolution struggle sessions.
It is not and never will be my problem to address anyone by a fictional pronoun or a made up gender.
I don’t even know what to say to this stuff anymore. It just keeps getting weirder. And Christians are called crazy…
Christians are also delusional and irrational. At least they aren’t alone.
If you say so, however, the primary difference is that Christians do not demand that schools, public building, and the public at large bow to their whims. When was the last time you saw a Christian demanding that the Schools participate in their delusions?
Where to start? How about the numerous attempts to teach garbage science in public schools under the fatuous guise of “intelligent design?” How about the continuing push to get prayer put back into public schools? How about religious groups trying to dictate what kind of books are in school libraries?
How is that for a start?
Cman, Garbage Science is already being taught in Public Schools, under the guise of ” Evolution”. But, you’re OK with that?
I’ll bet you believe that Covid-19 was sparked out of the Bat Wing soup from a Wuhan Wet Market too, right?
Yeah, let’s stop the nonsense and teach science, not the faith based theories that we have shoved down our throats now.
Surely you are not clueless enough to see that “intelligent design” was a knee jerk reaction to atheist overreach in the schools? Do you not understand where the Flying Spaghetti Monster came from?
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The push for prayer is not requiring any student to pray, it is telling the school they cannot stop a child from praying. And, when the religious folks are rebuffed, they accept the loss and move on. Where are the LGBTQWERTY+ crowd on that front? Oh… they do not get what they want, and the threats come out.
You, obviously do not understand the distinction. Then again, you have demonstrated a simplistic reasoning capability on other articles, so why should this one be different.
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As to the books, there is a difference between forcing one’s beliefs on school children and letting pre-teen children read books that teach (with pictures) how to perform fellatio and anal sex. Perhaps you know of a rational adult that wants children to see/learn that stuff?
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When the “pronoun police” show up, there is ZERO tolerance. Obey, or be destroyed. When the Christians are told to go packing they go.
Cman,
Science should be taught, real Science, based upon empirical data.
My rebuttal to your comment was an attempt to remind you of that. As for intelligent design, I recall reading a letter that Voltaire once sent to a friend after he got his first microscope. Voltaire went so far as to declare that he was now a Thesist because of the complexity of life and the need for its order to be maintained.
Further on you may recall the exclamation of Crick and Watson when they first saw the structure of DNA, ” this was engineered and brought here”. Both statements lend credence to observation of the obvious.
Turns out that life is irreducible complex and Faith in a God of Billions of years and trillions of random events won’t answer.
Beyond that, You might want to read Michael Behe’s ” Darwins Black Box”, I caution you though up front it’s a real Science book and is a slog to get through. I’ve read it three time since it appeared and am still getting my brain wrapped around the subject.
Cheers, and best wishes!
Oosik Puk,
Evolution is a scientific theory. Its also scientific fact. There is no doubt that evolution occurred. The exact process/mechanism by which it occurred is still up for debate, but not whether or not it happened. The only people that claim there is a controversy about the scientific fact of it having happened, aren’t scientists. Their the ones claiming that its “just a theory”. Maybe you’re one of them, I don’t know.
“Evolution is a scientific theory. Its also scientific fact.”
Cannot be both.
Do you really, I mean, really know anything about science?
You repeatedly rail on Christians. Do you also despised Jews, Muslims, Bhuddists, etc? Do you, personally not believe in a higher power? That we just spontaneously became living beings capable of thought?
You call us delusional because we believe in a living, caring God. Why are you not the delusional one for denying His existence? You say we are irrational because of our beliefs, but part of our teachings require specific conduct in our daily lives. That seems like rational conduct.
Nothing snarkey here, but I’d like you to spell out why you feel Christians are all bad.
You have no chance of getting a cogent response, as he has none to give.
Probably best not to feed the troll. Attention is what it wants.
I don’t believe that all Christians are bad. Some of them, like many people are not the greatest in the world, but not because they are Christians. I dislike Christianity for the same reasons that I dislike all religions in that they value faith over reason.
If one assumes evolution by means of natural selection, no faith is required, because it just all works. The evidence is there in the biological, molecular and paleontological past.
I do appreciate your question though and would enjoy a civil conversation on the matter so thanks for that! I don’t mean to come off as snarky, but I can understand how my wording may have seemed like that’s how I felt.
Christianity is a faith and by definition some of the tenets are not definable by science as we know it. The Bible even says that some things will be known by faith alone. Our faith is an individual one, meaning no one else can get you ‘there’. You need to find your way to God as an individual. I guess all I can tell you is that I feel that all humans have a deep down instinct that there is ‘something bigger’ out there than us. We have this desire to seek a higher power. Sounds like your ‘higher power’ is science since you explain complex human actions around that whereas I explain them around God/God’s plan. In an above post you stated that science proves evolution. What is that proof? I.e., Are you a scientist and if so what constitutes proof of evolution to you? Maybe a more basic question is what constitutes evolution in your eyes? We might be talking two different points here as I see evolution theory not as, say, cats that have two different color patterns but proof that something like a frog eventually developed into a cat.
In today’s society we are. We hold to beliefs they can never understand nor want to.
This will pass. We survived the dark ages, we survived disco, we survived the Borgias.
But disco left some bad scars.
“Identity is like an organ,
you can’t see it “
You know what else they can’t see? A penis…….BECAUSE IT’S NOT THERE!!!!!!
OH…OHHH……OHHHHH! (Sam Kinison)
It’s a form of violence to try to force sane individuals to share your derangement.
well said
LMAO, these people are truly Mentally ill and very disturbed people, and anyone who takes these lunatics seriously is Mentally ill and very disturbed as well, my only question is would be, what drug are these loons taking, and all this nonsense has run ramped since Covid and these loony democrats stole the torch … it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sickening and pathetic.
They need to wear a shirt and hat saying what part of the alphabet?
They are. Then I will call them broken I don’t care what you are.
In the mean time, North Korea launching missiles, Russian still trying to take over Ukraine, and China vowing to take back Taiwan. Our so called higher education institutions are busy polluting brains as fast as they can. We are done folks, stick a fork in us!
If the students at the UofA Fairbanks are worried about trans and not education it is time to cease the State of Alaska University funding period!
Jody, that was going to be my comment. Why should the state fund this absurd “education”? Enough already!!
Wholeheartedly agree. Cut funding until
they can get back to academics only and leave the immature narcissistic foolishness outside the classroom.
It’s become pretty apparent why no one (except maybe, the State of Alaska) places any value whatsoever on a UA degree ?
Sticks and stones
Will break your bones
But words will never hurt me
…learned before going to kindergarten!
see I am a grown up… Comfortable with myself ….these woke folk…. have such low self esteem they need affirmative from the world to the point that they want regulation that what ever they want they receive. Not happening, grow up…there are real issues to deal with and pronouns don’t even even make the last thing I care about.
Boring. Just time for a vacation. Gratitude is a thing also. Say thanks every day for your life to God the Creator for your family if you have one. Do good. Mind your own business. Ask God for guidance. God won’t let us down. People do let us down. We are all mortals. The Holy Scriptures say “The taking of offence is what rests in the bosom of the stupid one”. Sooooo….
Universities = Madness factories
If only liberals could bring themselves to support diversity of THOUGHT…!
“Intentionally using the wrong pronoun or misgendering someone is harassment”? So… If you harass me because I don’t agree with your delusion isn’t that the same? You can’t have it your way and not accept my way too.
I’m thinking there is a bigger plan in place. Make America look so bad that other countries will look away and not attack us. Just a thought? Who would want this mess?
If God has me develop a friendship with trans beyond passing, i’ll address how one mother called her daugter trying to be a boy, ‘dear’ instead of using her names. I’ll call a man trying to
be a woman, ‘handsome,’ is that a good biblical subsitute? When that day comes God will give me a subsitute name like that wise mother used even it making her daughter angry; so not be unloving nor complicit to another’s sin. If we will be complicit to a homosexual sin, the person will never turn away only diving deeper into sin before it destroys him and he dies plunging into hell.
These people are nothing more than Godless, lawless nihilist, and are demanding we join them in their trans-human satanic ritual. The only thing God gave to us, is our free will. The free will to choose. Nothing on the planet earth even belongs to us, not even our own bodies. To reject who you are as assigned by your creator is a rejection of God himself. And these are the same people that scream from the rooftops they believe in science? Well, we also believe in science. The same rules of science that govern the universe. Like the rules of thermal dynamics, electro-magnetics, pho-tonics, or the structures of an electron, or gravity, and all the forces that brought the stars and heavenly bodies into existence. In other words, intelligent design. And we don’t question where the three billion or more bits of data encoded into our double helix came from, because we know this code didn’t just spontaneously combust from under a rock. God save us from these fools.
It’s an active violence just because you say so. I say it’s not. I aim to continue to call it like I see it and if it’s got stripes on it it’s going to be a zebra.
Or a lemur.
Or a tiger.
But, you do you.
Ah there you are. Figured you were asleep at the wheel.
Like a moth to a flame, I am uncontrollably drawn to clueless meaningless comments…
Or a referee.
I have had gay friends all my life. What I see is the gay community being infiltrated by mentally unstable grievance champions. Everyone in life regardless of who you are experiences some sort of offense. It doesn’t mean that the world is against you or everyone hates you. But that is the message these “programs” bring. It only creates further division and not productive.
I am thankful that I will not be around when the next generation is in charge.
There are times I’m glad I’m old. Like now.
But I worry for my grandchildren.
Truer words were never spoken.
Words have meanings, and these delicate little flowers are using words, and demanding that WE use words…….that clearly do not mean what they think they do.
It is pathetic that people can be attending college, and do not even know the definition of words that are used in everyday language.
The University of Alaska system has been a bad joke for at least a couple decades. It for collecting as much money as possible. It get more absurd every year.
Act of violence?
1-2% of the population & they want 90% of the attention!
Mental Illness.
Everything is now violence. Maybe they need to see what REAL violence is!!!
Is it legal to just address a person by first name? Seems like a logical solution.
Well, sometimes you just can’t tell who/what you’re talking to. I used to say “thank you sir, thank you ma’am,” etc. Now sometimes I just cannot tell, so I just say thank you, now. No term of respect, just thank you. It was a hard habit to break, as it was ingrained into me from a young age.
They could make it easier on us if they/he/she/whatever actually looked like one or the other. Geesh!
And I thought all the Loons were hanging out on the lakes.
In that case I shall now be known as big balls
Respectfully request Governor Dunleavy order: (a) a full accounting of state dollars going to fund UA programs and initiatives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory and (b) top UA executives to explain how these policies do not and will not violate students’ First Amendment rights.
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Alaska’s university system may be a lost cause, but it does seem rude to pour good money after bad by forcing taxpayers to subsidize this… activity.
In order not to offend anyone, and I can’t remember who’s who or to endanger my life….There are so many pronouns to choose to call you and it is so confusing…SO…I’LL JUST CALL YOU AN “IT”. Please do not be offended as YOU are the one that has caused all this confusion. I’ll reserve your respect to be who you choose to be, BUT JUST THE SAME, YOU don’t call me any “off-colored” names and try to tell me that I AM IN THE WRONG..
I choose to believe to be the person …I KNOW WHO I AM.
Stupidity on an extreme level. And now it is actually organizational as UAF hired a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility professional for the Department of Equity and Compliance. Who’s running the show at UAF?!
It’s America, I can’t (and won’t) stop you from ‘identifying’ as anything, but YOU, in turn, will never get me to just go along with it. If you are a male and say you are a woman, you are simply a man in drag. If you are a female and try to pass yourself off as male, you simply have the worlds worst case of penis envy. Do/say what you want but don’t expect anyone else to go along with your delusion.
You have the Constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I won’t kill you because of how you ‘identify’, and I won’t try to imprison you for it either. But remember, you have the right to ‘pursue’ happiness not the right ‘to’ happiness.
The Mailman is now the Personperson. Easy enough!
You could be on to something..
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Female to feperson might be a stretch… check your eperson for new messages… what’s next?
The act of Violins I like are in the orchestra. Strings attached. This is, of course nonsense. Agree with Jody V. Save the state some money and increase the pfd instead. Are the other AK state universities demanding this also? It should be illegal to discriminate as this clearly is doing.
Lady, or man (whichever you were born, and REALLY are and always will be), you don’t know what “violence” means, if you think that not submitting to your fantasies and mental illness constitutes “violence”. But keep pushing this BS on the vast, vast majority who are sane and not mentally ill, and you WILL learn what the word “violence” really means.
Same Dan that used to do the KENI morning show?
“…misgendering someone (calling someone by the wrong pronoun) is an act of violence. ”
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Oh… Grow the FUDGE UP, people!
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Someone using the “wrong” pronoun is called, in the real world, a mistake. It is not violence.
Sorry, but if you look like a guy, I will likely use male pronouns, until I am corrected. Same for people who look female. If you want to be called Xe/Xem/Xir and I mistakenly use She/Her correct me. It is the adult thing to do.
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Instead we get this crap.
This is “schoolyard bullying” writ large. The “offended” seem to think they can bend everyone to their will, and the schools and businesses catering to this are helping them succeed.
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Oh, you are offended? Too bad. Man up!
These “preferred” pronouns are THIRD PERSON pronouns: Third-person pronouns are words such as “she,” “he,” “it,” and “they” that are used to refer to other people and things THAT ARE NOT BEING DIRECTLY ADDRESSED, without naming them specifically with a noun.
So, I guess I am a little confused by people claiming that others used the wrong pronoun when addressing them, because who uses THIRD PERSON pronouns to directly communicate to someone?
Proper use of grammar would indicate that when directly communicating to someone SECOND PERSON pronouns are used: you, your, yourself (singular) or you, yours, yourselves (plural) if not using a specific noun such as their name.
Remember when University Officials and Legislators like Click Bishop, Bert Stedman, Gary Stevens, Louis Stutes and others screamed when Ardruin err… Dunleavy tried to make meaningful cuts to State funding of the university system? Sadly, the threat of recall and resistance from so-called conservative legislators resulted in a much smaller cut that allowed the university to continue along with wasteful programs like this. Looks like it’s time for another major cut!
The university will just host another free concert an call it a protest.
It’s not just Alaska. The U.S. government is spreading these misguided ideas all over the world, even forcing them on people whose cultures are completely opposed to them. “Gender identity” and similar ideas are a core part of what is commonly referred to as “Democracy”. When will conservatives in this country wake up and stop supporting it?
Sounds like a university needs to have their budget cut. We’re not paying for wokeness, we’re paying for higher education. If they want to drag this mental illness out and force-feed it into students, then there needs to be a monetary penalty for it.
Socialism works great, until it runs out of our money.
The United States of America has become a nation of freaks and fanatics: to the left and to the right–they are all on the prowl! We are witnessing the degeneration of “America the Great!”
Throw this back in their face by lambasting them for not addressing you as an attack helicopter. This stupidity has no end. There is zero proof required to say you identify as something else. One can easily defend themselves from this nonsense by simply throwing their words back in their face. In their world, everybody will hate each other.
That doesn’t seem to be very well though through. If “misgendering” is an act of violence, can the misgendered violently defend himself?
“Your honor, I had to beat him with a club, he was misgendering me!” Judge: “Oh, OK, that lousy cop should have written that in his report”.
You paid for this trip to la la land, suckers.
Insisting that others participate in one’s charade of make believe, is an indicator of mental illness. Conforming to that expectation is also. If its not real, there is no place for it in the real world, and more particularly, there is no time for it.
I wonder how a boldly stated, “In the name of Jesus Christ, you will speak the TRUTH” will play out in a confrontation. I plan to find out.
The solution is really very simple, just don’t talk to them
I have the right to remain silent, so I don’t have to interact with these ninnyhammers
I once had an individual ask me how I identified myself.
I answered I identified myself as Randy.
No, they responded, how do you identify yourself, Cis, Bi, Gay, or what?
I responded that I identified myself as Randy.
Confused, they asked me how I identified them.
I responded that I identified them by their name, as I knew them.
No, they responded, am I gay, cis, trans, etc?
I responded that they are their name, as I knew them, and I do not care about the rest, and was not about to change my response to them as the name I knew them by.
They asked why I do not care about the rest, as that may offend them somehow.
I responded that any offense is upon them, not upon me, as that is MY preference, not theirs, and is their offense to deal with, not mine.
And that is how I address ANY individual.
If you are a male, I shall address you as such.
If you are a female, I shall address you as such.
I do not recognize your delusion, nor mental illness.
Your pretended offense be damned.
Horse hockey, freedom of speech still rules. He, she or It.
I am so sick of these words are violence idiots. Let’s go out in the parking lot, you scream your words at me and I shoot you in the face. Which one is real violence?
Whoever came up with yjuu oh se diversity rules is a whack job, totally!
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