A personal pronoun is what you would like to be called in place of your name/nickname. Most commonly the pronoun for men is he/him, women is she/her, and for non-binary people (people who don’t identify with the male or female genders, or are somewhere in between) most commonly use they/them.
A transgender person (or trans person) is someone who does not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. There are many types of transgender people, with the most common three being FtM (was female but is now male), MtF (was male but is now female), and non-binary (doesn’t identify with the male or female genders, or are somewhere in between). Once a transition begins, the person is who they identify as (ex. a FtM person is a man after he begins his transition). A cisgender person (or cis person) is anyone who is not trans.
Transgender people often change their pronouns and name as a part of social transition. For example, an FtM trans person would commonly use he/him pronouns and pick a more masculine name. As it stands right now, having pronouns in the bio (to tell someone what pronouns to use for the person) is primarily othering.
Cis people, like you and I, can help change that. We can put our pronouns in our bios to normalize having a pronoun marker and make it easier and more discreet when a trans person has to do it.
I am a cisgender male, who uses he/him pronouns. At the end of my bio, I put (he/him) to show that I use those pronouns. I encourage other cis people to do the same with whatever pronouns they choose to use. Let’s normalize asking for and being able to find and use a persons correct pronouns, and us cis people can make a simple change and have a huge difference.
It doesn’t have to be a big thing, just slide your pronouns into whatever bio you want across social media.
Let’s make a difference, be good allies, and help open the conversation to normalize trans people.
Thank you.
Derek I. Schmitz 