Hii?

This weekend I have been in a queer bubble. The annual MBLGTACC: Midwestern bisexual lesbian gay transgender ally college conference was held in Bloomington Indian at the University there. 1500 college queers and allies came from at least 7 states for workshops, speakers, and general queer networking and socializing. I spent my time in trans workshops spreading my tentacles and soaking up as much information and ideas as possible, my group joked with me that I was “so popular” because as we were standing outside many people remembered me and greeted me. I met hundreds of individuals and passed out my cards in hopes to create lasting connections and communication possibilities. My gender pronouns were never an issue, and I was asked up front what identification I preferred. In this safe and accepting space I joked that I would experience culture shock when traveling and being back in Grinnell.

This is a t-shirt design with a funny pun on the Nintendo wii used as a marketing tool towards Christian youth stopped me in my tracks today. I was in the “worlds largest truck stop” in Iowa just over the Illinois boarder. I cannot say that the t-shirt offended me but I was indeed very interested. I took a moment to imagine the individuals who would both buy and wear these shirts. To make a generalization most Christian youth who would enjoy video game puns do not question gender on a daily bases. Granted now that I say this I am reminded of my video game nerd grade school friend. He was a devout Christian and one of the only friends from my youth who did not detest me after I came out in High School (he actually liked having a lesbian friend.) He and I have also had conversations recently about my gender identity (granted only over facebook but he now lives and is married in Tennessee.) So this individual wearing the T-shirt with “hii” plastered on it is not as much of an issue as others. Perhaps it is not an issue at all, but instead I am too caught up having recently experimented with my own pronoun usage before settling on ze.

I guess my big wonder is if this t-shirt will help or harm the gender neutral pronoun movement.
Also if you were wondering all weekend I was referred to by ze and it felt really right. New people that I met will never have the she attached to me and that makes it easier for them to use ze. I am happy with this fact.