Janet Mathistad, Minot

I am responding to Jeffrey Case’s letter in The Minot Daily News this past Saturday. Mr. Case makes the statement that Minot (and one could presume he includes himself) “is an open and tolerant and welcoming community.” Then he goes on to refer to “two women with physical disabilities and a transgender.”

Perhaps he simply does not realize how ignorant and unwelcoming it is to refer to a fellow human being as “a transgender,” and is therefore open to learning how to do better. Better would be to say a transgender person, or a transgender woman, or simply, woman. Best would be to actually talk to the person so that you could call her by her name, and find out for sure whether she prefers she/her or they/them pronouns. That would be the best way to handle such a situation. That is not some “woke Marxist ideology.” That is just simple human kindness.