To submit a comment to almost any elected official these days, the first thing you are required to submit is a title. You’re included in the pre-set list if you’re a Mr., Mrs., or even a Dr., Honorary, Professor, or Dean. But if you’re a non-gender-conforming individual – and chances are that if you’re not one yourself, someone you care about is – the message is clear: you don’t belong. And it is the hundreds of seemingly small exclusionary instances like this that make life so difficult for non-gender conforming people in the United States and around the world.
As it stands, organizations such as the Sierra Club, who strongly believe in building a more inclusive country, are still required to cause potential harm to their supporters by requiring titles whenever comments need to be submitted directly to an elected official. We hope to help all senators and House members to realize their obligation to make their constituents feel heard by offering the gender-neutral “Mx.” option on their web forms by the time the next Congress gets underway in January 2019.
While momentum to offer gender-inclusive title options on webforms has made progress in recent months, it remains stalled at the moment, and we hope you’ll join us in getting this one over the finish line!