Instead of (or in addition to*) he, she, they and all of the more fine-grained pronouns such as xir, we could just invent one for everyone that doesn’t require prior knowledge of the person to which it’s being applied.
* I could see a neutral pronoun being used until you know for sure what regular gendered pronoun the person prefers. That way, you can always just play it safe with the neutral one if you want. No harm done.
By way of example, let’s say we used “it/it’s/its”. Obviously we wouldn’t use that because it sounds dehumanising, but it would work for every person with no chance of offence or bigotry (I think?). It doesn’t deny the person’s identity, it just makes their identity untethered to one small part of casual language in the same way it is now.
Do you agree, and if not, why not? I’m not sure where I would stand on such a proposal, so I’m interested to hear the for and against, particularly from the non-binary and trans folks.
P.S. I’m not saying we do away with gendered language entirely, just those introductory pronouns; the part of language that requires the speaker to make a snap judgement about the person’s identity based on unreliable visual and aural clues.
German also has the disadvantage that one can’t just use the German equivalent of “they” as it is already identical with the female pronoun and the polite way to adress people (“Sie”), so it would basically gain a fourth meaning.
Er redete mit ihr = he talked to her
Sie redete mit ihr = she talked to her
Sie redeten mit ihr = they (plural) talked to her
Sie redeten mit ihr = You (formal) talked to her
Now if “Sie” would also be used as a gender-neutral single pronoun, it would be even more confusing. We defo need a different word eventually, but like you just said; every new addition to this language sounds awkward at first, and there is always the risk of it just not catching on. Remember the last few times someone tried to propose yet another new word for “not thirsty anymore”? The public always rejects it and it is always forgotten after a few weeks. (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitt)
And to be perfectly honest, the singular “they” also felt awkward to me at first, but the more you use it, the less awkward it feels, the more normal it becomes, and eventually it doesn’t feel weird anymore. You just have to power through the initial awkwardness and stick with it for long enough until you get used to it, that’s all it takes ;)