> if someone strongly wants to be referred to in a particular way, the polite response is to respect their wishes
Would you also respect the wishes of a schizophrenic person, if they say much the same thing? If they say that they are actually an alien from outer space, would you play along?
> Would you also respect the wishes of a schizophrenic person, if they say much the same thing?
In general, I would respect someone's wishes. If they want to be Mork from outer space, K.
Of course, there are some very limited cases where we may reasonably believe that playing along is harmful either to ourselves or to the other person. If there's a broad medical consensus that something is harmful to someone, then maybe we shouldn't do it.
A biologically female person who wants to be called "they," because they have decided they don't like the connotations attached to "she" right now, doesn't rise anywhere close to that in my opinion.
For 95+% of people I interact with in a given day, it's none of my business and not at all my job to police whether a person is asking me to call them by their "real" name or whatever it is your questions are trying to get at.
Would you also respect the wishes of a schizophrenic person, if they say much the same thing? If they say that they are actually an alien from outer space, would you play along?