No. of Recommendations: 4
You and I having a cordial conversation without me having to tiptoe around avoiding or using certain pronouns, phrases or what have you. Me just being me without having to think can I say this or do I avoid saying that and you speaking in terms you normally use, (lawyer jargon ;)) just two friends having a conversation.
Sure - easy enough to picture.
But surely you would acknowledge that a friendly conversation has boundaries, beyond which it stops being friendly. If you were to start using racial slurs, for example, I would have a serious problem with that. I'm Jewish - if you started using slurs that were derogatory towards Jewish people, I would obviously also have a serious problem with that as well.
Part of having a cordial conversation is staying within the bounds of civility and what you understand about the person you're talking to. Avoiding things that are grossly offensive to the other person.
So if you're talking to a transwoman, but keep on calling them by male pronouns even after being politely reminded that doing so is offensive to them, you're no longer engaging in a friendly conversation. You're being deliberately offensive towards them. That's certainly out of place in any kind of professional context (a workplace or other place of business), and most people would regard that as being out of place in friendly social settings.
The Amish avoid certain words and use another in its place. I converse as I normally do. No one is offended and neither really don't care.
Of course. But there's a huge gap between cultural differences in vocabulary on neutral matters (saying "soda" vs. "pop") and deliberately using terminology that the other person correctly views as denigrating and insulting. I don't imagine that your conversations with the Amish include you deliberately using language that diminishes the sincerity of their faith, or questions the validity of their cultural or religious choices? Right?
