This British Anchor Refused To Use A Non-Binary Guest’s Pronouns, Saying It’s "Grammatically Incorrect"
"You’re not a plural. You’re one person, and you’re a female person. So, I will use ‘she’ and ‘her,’ thank you very much."
An exchange between a British TV anchor and her non-binary guest has gone viral online after the host refused to use the guest’s pronouns.
Julia Hartley-Brewer, a TalkTV anchor, invited journalist Shivani Dave to discuss the CASS Review – an independent report on gender services for children and young people.
“My next guest is Shivani Dave. She’s a journalist and presenter at Virgin Radio,” Hartley-Brewer said at the start of the interview on Wednesday April 10.
Dave, who identifies as non-binary trans, then politely corrected Hartley-Brewer for introducing them with she/her pronouns.
“Good afternoon, Julia. You know my pronouns are they/them,” Dave said as they joined the show.
Hartley-Brewer then retorted by saying she prefers to “use correct grammar”.
“You can choose what you want to call yourself. But you don’t get to require me to use incorrect grammar and factually incorrect things,” Hartley-Brewer said.
“You’re not a plural. You’re one person, and you’re a female person. So, I will use ‘she’ and ‘her,’ thank you very much,” she said.
Dave pointed out it is not grammatically incorrect to use singular they/them pronouns for an individual and tried to shift the conversation back to the CASS Review.
“Yeah, but you chose to bring it up,” Hartley-Brewer continued.
Dave reiterated they were not a single woman, but a “very special” non-binary trans person, referencing a statement Hartley-Brewer made earlier when she said people with different labels like to be “special”.
“Okay. I’m not special. I’m just a boring, old, heterosexual, married woman. But you know, sorry about that. We’re not allowed to do that anymore,” Hartley-Brewer said.
This is not the first time Hartley-Brewer has been rude to a guest.
In January, she yelled at and repeatedly interrupted a Palestinian politician, accusing him of “not being used to women talking.”
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