Christian conservative Liberty Counsel
has criticized Merriam-Webster for making “they” its 2019 Word of
the Year.
“English famously lacks a
gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular
pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been
used for this purpose for over 600 years," the dictionary
publisher said in announcing its Word of the year.
"More recently, though, they has
also been used to refer to one person whose gender identity is
nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published, edited
text, as well as social media and in daily personal interactions
between English speakers.”
Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver chided the
dictionary for recognizing the radical transformation in usage the
word had undergone in recent years.
“Merriam-Webster fell in, lockstep,
with the garish LGBT parade when it announced its 2019 Word of the
Year: 'They.' They, you see, is the new pronoun of choice for people
whose 'gender identity is nonbinary,' as America’s word authority
announced,” Staver wrote in a statement.
“It’s a bizarre disgrace. America’s
venerable dictionary publisher is bowing deeply to radical LGBT
forces and pushing the LGBT agenda forward. This latest cultural
atrocity gives you and me a disturbing signal of how far our nation
has shifted off its Judeo-Christian foundation – and why Liberty
Counsel is so needed today.”
Staver, whose group is challenging in
court state and local bans on therapies that attempt to alter the
sexual orientation and gender identity of LGBT youth and laws that
prohibit LGBT discrimination, concluded his remarks by asking for
“your most generous year-end” donation to “fight the battles to
come in 2020.”