"Pronouns, positionality, and power: Institutionalized transphobia, intersectionality and trans-affirming language",Lal Zimman, University of California Santa Barbara, USA

Pronouns are one of the most visible domains for transgender people’s language activism, particularly in so-called “natural gender” – or, following Curzan (2003), notional gender – languages. As a result, pronouns have also become a key area in efforts to advance institutionalized transphobia, which have intensified on a global scale.

This talk explores the complex role of pronouns in the negotiation of (socio)linguistic justice, leading to the argument that the success of trans-affirming language depends on a broader intersectional political framework and praxis. It begins with a cross-linguistic overview of trans pronominal variation, exploring some of the typological properties of personal pronouns and strategies trans people have developed to contest binary gendered forms. With this foundation, the next section of the talk addresses a specific case in which trans pronouns are under attack: one of numerous educational policies in the United States designed to restrict the affirmation – or even discussion – of trans people’s pronouns. These efforts have dramatically proliferated in the US, but I focus specifically on a law passed in Florida in 2023, known as “Subsection 3.” Subsection 3 generally prohibits teachers from sharing their pronouns with students if they do not align with their sex assigned at birth, and it has garnered legal challenges from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent US civil rights organization. Drawing on advocacy work related to this case, I discuss the way the language of Subsection 3 and its supporters undermine their own arguments that gendered pronouns must be an index of “biological sex” rather than gender identity. At the same time, I identify ways that linguistic researchers can refocus our work to more directly support trans language activism and address its opponents.

In this context, trans communities now more than ever need to participate in broader intersectional coalitions aimed at linguistic justice for marginalized communities. The final section of the talk explores how trans language activism can be reshaped to contribute to these efforts, focusing on the relationship between colonial and Indigenous languages, ableism and linguistic nativism, class privilege, and the unequal impacts of using non-standard language. In this sense, the workings of racism, nativism, coloniality, ableism, and transphobia are inseparable, and I argue that trans-affirming language activism can only succeed to the extent that it is willing to broaden its range of linguistic concerns.