<\/p>\n
University of Chicago freshmen \ufeff was bestowed a MacArthur Award last Monday for accomplishing a truly extraordinary task: using his friend Alex\u2019s preferred gender pronoun, \u201cthey.\u201d When asked to reveal the secret of his inner strength, Todd said, \u201cUm, it really wasn\u2019t that hard. I use singular \u2018they\u2019 half of the time anyway, like most people, so it only took making a half second pause for a week or so. Since it\u2019s important to Alex, I figured I wouldn\u2019t be a very good friend if I at least didn\u2019t make some effort, and now it\u2019s just natural. I\u2019m confused about how you find this remarkable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Todd continues to accumulate accolades for his amazing accomplishments. There has been buzz on the blogosphere about Todd receiving an Academy Award for so effectively portraying the role of a \u201cDecent Human Being\u201d who accomplishes the extraordinary feat of \u201cextending small and simple gestures on behalf of his loved ones to respect their basic human dignity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barack Obama and John Boehner are reportedly in the mist of organizing a duel to the death to determine who wins the right to award Todd with either a Congressional Gold Medal or a Medal of Freedom. Said Obama, \u201cI gotta get me some of that advancing human rights goodness. I can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t think of pulling off a Todd ages ago. Using \u2018they.\u2019 That\u2019s great!\u201d Boehner countered, \u201cPeople forget that Republicans want to be decent friends too. Patriot Todd deserves a medal for accomplishing what so few of us can: using \u2018they\u2019 when politely asked to. Wow. I\u2019m speechless when confronted with such good old-fashioned American courage.\u201d Asked for comment on the impending duel, Todd gave The Dealer<\/i> a blank stare. \u201cI\u2019m flattered, but I haven\u2019t really done anything beyond use a pronoun. Aren\u2019t there people trying to cure AIDS or something?\u201d If he only knew how truly extraordinary he was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Mary Vansuch April 20, 2014 University of Chicago freshmen \ufeff was bestowed a MacArthur Award last Monday for accomplishing a truly extraordinary task: using his friend Alex\u2019s preferred gender pronoun, \u201cthey.\u201d When asked to reveal the secret of his inner strength, Todd said, \u201cUm, it really wasn\u2019t that hard. I use singular \u2018they\u2019 half of the time anyway, like most people, so it only took making a half second pause for a week or so. Since it\u2019s important to Alex, I figured I wouldn\u2019t be a very good friend if I at least didn\u2019t make some effort, and now it\u2019s just natural. I\u2019m confused about how you find this remarkable.\u201d Todd continues to accumulate accolades for his amazing accomplishments. There has been buzz on the blogosphere about Todd receiving an Academy Award for so effectively portraying the role of a \u201cDecent Human Being\u201d who accomplishes the extraordinary feat of \u201cextending small and simple gestures on behalf of his loved ones to respect their basic human dignity.\u201d Barack Obama and John Boehner are reportedly in the mist of organizing a duel to the death to determine who wins the right to award Todd with either a Congressional Gold Medal or a Medal of Freedom. Said Obama, \u201cI gotta get me some of that advancing human rights goodness. I can\u2019t believe I didn\u2019t think of pulling off a Todd ages ago. Using \u2018they.\u2019 That\u2019s great!\u201d Boehner countered, \u201cPeople forget that Republicans want to be decent friends too. Patriot Todd deserves a medal for accomplishing what so few of us can: using \u2018they\u2019 when politely asked to. Wow. I\u2019m speechless when confronted with such good old-fashioned American courage.\u201d Asked for comment on the impending duel, Todd gave The Dealer a blank stare. \u201cI\u2019m flattered, but I haven\u2019t really done anything beyond use a pronoun. Aren\u2019t there people trying to cure AIDS or something?\u201d If he only knew how truly extraordinary he was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-komono"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3207,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/3207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}