[quote]The other day, I answered a phone call regarding questions about my place if business. I informed "her" that she had to take it up with another department and that she needed to call a different number. I got the number for her and and she asked me another question in which I responded "Yes Ma'am." "She" then proceeded to yell at me. I tried to apologize for inadvertently offending "her" in which "she" responded "No! You were just trying to be a jerk, asshole!" He/She hung up in a fit of rage. [/quote]
[u]I refer to everyone as sir or ma'am as a sign of respect for those around me. And I would never say it over the phone unless I was certain. Now I feel as if I have to uproot my morals and virtues to appease someone how wanted to uproot their gender. [b]I fully support gender equality and changing genders, but I will not disrespect the vast majority of people to appease less than .1% of people.[/b][/u]
Now my company may be facing a lawsuit and I could be looking at potential termination for this. You can have your gender equality and I will support you in all aspects, but this situation is disgusting, and people shouldn't drop their morals for this.
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If someone used the incorrect pronoun for me over the phone, I wouldn't assume they did it to "be a jerk." It would make me feel unhappy and self-conscious, sure. But it's not the other person's fault that they couldn't tell what I was. I probably wouldn't even tell them they said the wrong thing, because I wouldn't want to think about it and dwell on it. I'd say that if you're not sure, just don't use any gendered term, but if you really do think someone is one thing but they're actually another, it's just an unfortunate event that they have to deal with. It's not your fault.