Franklin Graham: UT's Call for Gender-Neutral Pronouns Is 'Nonsense'

Evangelist preacher Franklin Graham is taking issue with a University of Tennessee document that suggests students use general-neutral pronouns.

The document includes the use of the pronouns "ze, hir, hirs, and xe, xem, xyr" instead of he, she, his, hers, etc.

In a Facebook post Friday morning, Graham called the practice "nonsense."


According to WATE.com, Donna Braquet, the director of the University of Tennessee's Pride Center, said the document was put together because of transgender people.

"We should not assume someone's gender by their appearance, nor by what is listed on a roster or in student information systems," Braquet said. "Transgender people and people who do not identify within the gender binary may use a different name than their legal name and pronouns of their gender identity, rather than the pronouns of the sex they were assigned at birth.

"These may sound a little funny at first, but only because they are new. The she and he pronouns would sound strange, too, if we had been taught ze when growing up."

The transgender topic has been in the news this year in the wake of Olympian and reality-TV star Bruce Jenner's decision to transform himself unto a woman named Caitlyn Jenner.

This week, it was also revealed that Arizona State University unveiled more gender-neutral restrooms on its campus.

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