Free Idea: To Practice "They" Pronouns, Decide One of Your Houseplants Is Trans

Here's something you can do, if you're stuck at home and you're a (cis) person who wants to work at getting better using they/them pronouns to refer to people who use they/them pronouns (like me!).

If you own houseplants, decide that one of your houseplants is trans, the sort who uses they/them pronouns. And now, whenever you refer to this plant, take it as an opportunity to call the houseplant by they/them!

So for example, this is one of my favorite houseplants. I've had them since college (which was like over a decade ago??). This morning I decided they are trans.

This whole time, since college, they've had googly eyes glued on them, which I did inspired by this important SNL sketch featuring Christopher Walken monologuing as a man who's very afraid of plants (unless they have googly eyes glued on them). 

There's no need to stop at one houseplant! If you have several houseplants, why not declare all your houseplants trans?! This will only give you more opportunities to practice using they/them pronouns. (As with any linguistic change, it's practice that will make you better at these constructions, not like, whether you're a good person or whether you know intellectually what's right.) 

Bonus: when you fuck up your plant's pronouns, you can also practice briefly acknowledging and apologizing without making it all about you!