English lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a…

English lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years. Recently though, they has also been used to refer to a person whose gender identity is nonbinary, a sense that is increasingly common in published text, social media, and in daily personal interactions between English speakers. There's no doubt that its use is established in the English language, which is why it was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in September of 2019.

Nonbinary they was also prominent in the news in 2019. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA) revealed in April that her child is gender-nonconforming and uses they. And the American Psychological Association’s blog officially recommended that singular they be preferred in professional writing over “he or she” when the reference is to a person whose gender is unknown or to a person who prefers they.

(Adaptado de https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year/ they. Acessado em 29/04/2020.)

De acordo com o texto, o fato de uma palavra simples, como o pronome “they”, ter sido escolhida como a palavra do ano de 2019 se justifica pela necessidade de