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  1. Hey! I love the idea behind this group, but am having trouble understanding it.
  2. The cover photo says "Gender equality is for everyone", but the upcoming event posted reads "gender equality movement that brings together one half of humanity [men] in support of the other of humanity [women]"
  3. While these two points do not directly contradict eachother, it would be significantly more inclusive to suggest that those who identify as women are also going to support those who identify as men and others who fall between these two society dictated groups.
  4. As someone who identifies as non-binary and gender neutral, I am wondering how I fit in here. This movement seems quite gender binary using pronouns such as he and she, but as someone who believes in gender neutrality, I do not feel included.
  5.  
  6. My questions are as follows
  7. 1. Why is this movement not inclusive?
  8. 2. Is there a reason it is not suggested that women support men?
  9. 3. How can I fit in to this group?
  10. 4. How will this group be more gender neutral moving forwards?
  11. My pronouns are ze [singular] and zit [plural]
  12.  
  13. Thank you for your time.
  14.  
  15. _______
  16.  
  17. Hi there! I would like to start off by thanking you in your interest regarding our organization at the University of Guelph and am more than happy to answer your questions. To answer your concern about the headers being different, one of our members actually pointed the same issue that you brought up which is why we changed the header on the home page to state that gender equality is something for everyone and not just men and women. The original one was retrieved from an older version of the HeForShe UN website, but they have now revised their entire website to include those who do not identify as male or female. I would also like to state that our Facebook page is still in an “under construction” phase.
  18. Regardless, on behalf of our organization I would like to personally apologize on the confusion of the headers and completely understand why you would question HeForShe at UoG's stance on gender neutrality – this is something that is important to us and our group. We will definitely be updating the events header as soon as possible.
  19. Now to answer your other questions:
  20. 1. Besides the difference of headers which we completely agree do differ and increase the feeling of exclusivity for those who do not identify as male or female, our organization at the University of Guelph is an inclusive movement. We encourage anyone from any spectrum to join our group to promote gender equality among those that identify as male, female, those who are transgender and those who do not identify as male or female. As I stated above, HeForShe recognizes that gender equality is something that everyone must be on board for. Although I definitely do agree with you that there is emphasis on gender pronouns (such as the title of the group itself), our organization does in fact believe in the social, political and economic equality of all sexes and genders but at the same time, strongly encourages everyone from the gender spectrum to join our movement because we cannot achieve gender equality if we do not ALL come together.
  21. 2. Although it is not yet explicitly stated in our Facebook page, we of course do not suggest that women do not support men - in fact, that is the complete opposite of what our organization is about. Our organization is fighting the negative stigma of feminism by extending a hand to those (male, female, transgender or non-binary) who do not associate themselves with the term because of its negative reputation.
  22. 3. I would like to thank you so much for voicing your concerns to our organization regarding how you can feel more included. You can fit into this organization just as equally as any other individual who identifies as one of the binary genders. As I previously stated, we are trying to destigmatize the term feminism, (and we are advocating for other issues which I mention in question 4) and if this message is of significance to you, we thoroughly encourage you to join. In addition, if you were to become a member of HeForShe at the University of Guelph, it is our job as leaders to make sure that YOU feel included in our group. Regardless, you are always free to voice your own concerns and opinions. Also, one of the issues that we as an organization are attempting to tackle is in fact more inclusivity for non-binary students at the University of Guelph through education and awareness, which is something that you can help advocate with us.
  23. 4. Again, I would like to thank you so much for bringing your concerns to our attention. Although our group is focused on destigmatizing the undesirable conceptions of feminism, we will also be focusing on other issues as well such as LGBTQ+, and even advocating for those who choose not to identify as either male or female as I previously mentioned. If you were to join, we would absolutely love for you to advocate for these issues alongside with us. We will also be mentioning on our Facebook page (and anywhere on social media for that matter) that those who identify as male, female, are transgender, or identify as non-binary are encouraged and more then welcome to join. Additionally, our Presidents of the organization will undergo specific training to insure that everyone, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation etc. can feel like they belong to our group by ensuring the steps they take will lead to a better, stronger, inclusive group. All members of our organization MUST be accepting of everyone who decides to join – that is an absolute. Also, members of HeForShe at the University of Guelph are always open to share their concerns if they feel like they are not included enough - but I would like to emphasize that it is OUR job to ensure you do not have to feel excluded in the first place. And finally, our organization will never assume one’s gender identification upon meeting that individual.
  24. As President of HeForShe at the University of Guelph, I would like to thank you so much for voicing your concerns about gender neutrality. We will of course be taking your questions and everything you have raised up seriously. If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
  25. I appreciate your time to write to us and hope that you can be a member of our team.
  26. - Sabrina
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