June is Pride month!

At Snowsport England, we want to ensure our environments are welcoming to everyone, and one of our current objectives is to create a diversity and inclusion action plan, that will compliment our strategy, Inspiring Snowsport.

Ahead of Pride month, we have been exploring the use of pronouns, you may have noticed that some of our team are now using pronouns in our email footers, it’s a small action, but one we felt was important to explore.

The use of pronouns may feel minor for those who are cisgender, but by using them and normalising their usage, you can act as an ally for the non-binary and transgender community. It relieves burden from those who feel they have to explain their gender, and reduces the chance of anyone being misgendered.

Its important to note that the choice to share pronouns is down to each individual, it may be sensitive for some people, and should always be personal choice.

What are pronouns?

We use pronouns as a way to identify or refer to someone. Pronouns allow us to affirm gender identities and create a respectful safe space by referring to people in a way that feels most accurate to them.

Different pronouns you may see for someone who identifies as female are she, her or hers. If someone identifies as male, he, him, his. If someone doesn’t identify as either preferring to be gender neutral they, their, theirs can be used.

Terminology – What do all the different terms mean?

Sex refers to a persons biological status, which are often categorised as male, female or intersex.

Gender refers to the social construct of norms, behaviours and roles that vary between societies and over time. Gender is often categorised as male, female or nonbinary.

Gender identity is ones own internal sense of self and their gender, whether that be man, woman, neither or both. This is not outwardly visible to others.

Cisgender, for most people gender identity aligns with sex assigned at birth, this is referred to as cisgender.