Rae Spoon

Rae Spoon is a Canadian musician and writer who was awarded an Honour of Distinction from the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT writers in 2014.

After a decade of living as a trans man, Spoon noted a preference for the pronoun "they" in 2012 during an interview with cartoonist Elisha Lim, a fellow advocate for the gender-neutral pronoun. They explained to Now Magazine, "after years of fighting to be called 'he,' the idea of coming out again made me tired. But now I feel kind of rejuvenated, ready to fight on some more. I think the 'they' pronoun is a pretty cool thing. It's letting a lot of people not have to identify as a man or a woman. Whatever it means to them."

They co-wrote the book Gender Failure with Ivan E. Coyote.

Quotes
"I'm going by 'they' now. I'm gender retired. I'm no good at gender."

"I was tired of often being expected to perform a male role because my pronoun was 'he.' After so many years fighting to be called 'he' and having people ask me when I was going to modify my body (physically transition), I realized that for me being trans is not about being read as a man or changing my body. I am happy with the body that I have. What I'm unhappy with is the way things are gendered by society in general. I don't feel like I want to carry out a male or a female gender role. Gender-neutral pronouns made sense to me personally and felt like the right decision."

Links

 * Wikipedia entry
 * Twitter
 * Website