A Wall Street firm has directed employees, when introducing themselves to each other, to offer up their own gender identity pronouns, all in order to show respect for all whose identity does not align with their sex.With similar policies, private entities and government agencies (including schools) appear unwilling to respect the reality that sex is not "assigned" at birth, but declared before and after birth by a person's 23rd chromosome pair in every cell of the body as either male (XY) or female (XX).  They also appear unwilling to respect truth, transparency, science, and common sense.

Last year, cnbc.com quoted Warren Buffett from his annual shareholder letter:  "Abraham Lincoln once posed the question: 'If you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does it have?' and then answered his own query: 'Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.'"  The cnbc.com story continued: "Lincoln's riddle signifies the difference between illusion and fact.  In other words, you can get away with a lot by changing the definition of something, but changing definitions won't change reality."

The same wisdom applies to issues of gender identity. Lincoln's wisdom demonstrates common sense when compared to policies developed out of false notions that men can become women and vice versa, and that addressing or referring to a person of one sex with names and pronouns associated with persons of the opposite sex will increase the respect accorded to that person. Coercion, whether by government or by a corporation, will create not respect, but rather resentment.Can anyone seriously believe that a relationship conceived by compulsion and born in deception will engender respect? Only truth deserves dignity and respect.  And it is only in an environment of truth and transparency that compassion, effective care for those suffering from dysphoria, and appropriate policies will ensue.

Such policies appear to have been adopted without consideration or appreciation of the material adverse medical, social, and economic risks and consequences attending transition and of the adverse impact of such policies on the efficient functioning of society.In addition to any applicable constitutional issues (such as compelled speech, privacy, free exercise of religion, and rights of parents to control the education and upbringing of their children), such policies exhibit some or all of the following major deficiencies.:

1. They ecourage employees to act contrary to ethics policies requiring honesty and integrity. 

2. They appear to be a capitulation to campaigns to intentionally eliminate the essential differences distinguishing males from females and to do what Lincoln condemned: alter and hijack the definitions of the words sex and male and female and their derivative names and pronouns. 

3. They are unwise when they encourage and compel others (employees) to become complicit in misrepresentation, deceit, and other actions that may be unethical and unlawful. 

4. They lead to confusion as to the intended meaning of names and pronouns and inferences which might be drawn from them.  Does they refer to a single person or to a group of persons?  Does he refer to a male or to a female who believes she is or desires to be a male? 

5. They ignore the resulting societal disruption when all who were formerly comfortable relying on names and pronouns will be compelled to engage in their own costly, time-consuming, and difficult investigations and inquiries in order to verify a person's true nature.

6. They ignore current estimates that around "a quarter (22–28%) of transgender women [i.e., men calling themselves women] are living with HIV, and more than half (an estimated 56%) of black/African American transgender women [sic] are living with HIV."  Policies affirming "transition" by black African-American males are, in effect, encouraging behaviors which make it more likely than not that they will be infected with HIV.  Such policies are contrary to public policy and insulting to public and private efforts to reduce the spread of HIV. 

7. They ignore (a) that affirmation of gender dysphoria is only one of a number of controversial alternative treatments for gender dysphoria and typically commences with social transition (use of opposite-sex names and pronouns, cross-dressing, and use of opposite-sex facilities) and (b) that diagnosis and selection of recommended treatments is complex and is reserved for licensed mental health professionals.  Because there "is no evidence for the political case that transsexuals were born that way" and because there are many suggested causes and contributors to gender dysphoria (including patient and family psychopathology, media influence, peer pressure, and social contagion), it is inappropriate (and likely unethical and perhaps unlawful) for government, an employer, or educational institution to institute a "one-size-fits-all" affirmation policy, thus usurping the prerogatives of licensed medical professionals. 

8.Ignore the fact that medical treatments (including social transition such as use of opposite-sex names and pronouns) for gender dysphoria require the securing of valid "informed consent" after detailed disclosure of all material information and explanations regarding treatment alternatives, and after all adverse medical, economic, and social risks and consequences of proceeding with the treatment, are fully comprehended.If valid informed consent is not secured, claims for failure of informed consent, malpractice, and battery may be justified.

9.They ignore the warning in the American Psychological Association's APA Handbook on Sexuality and Psychology as to children:

Premature labeling of gender identity should be avoided. Early social transition (i.e., change of gender role, such as registering a birth-assigned boy in school as a girl) should be approached with caution to avoid foreclosing this stage of (trans)gender identity development.

The Handbook explains that if there is early social transition, "the stress associated with possible reversal of this decision has been shown to be substantial[.]"

10. They ignore the fact that many who take on opposite-sex names and pronouns will ultimately come to regret the decision.  Even "sex change" surgeons express doubt about transgenderism.  Dr. Miroslav Djordjevie, world premier genital reconstruction surgeon, is realizing that "sex reassignment" surgery is not making patients happy  and that the surgery they thought would bring them the satisfaction they were looking for only plunged them into deeper despair, with "crippling levels of depression" and intense suicidal thoughts.  Dr. Djordjevie also says he's overwhelmed by the numbers who've approached him about reversing their procedure.

11.They disregard the violence that can and does occur, typically when males take on opposite-sex names and pronouns and then encourage intimacy with a male without disclosure of the impersonation. Such occurs so often that some courts have accepted a so-called panic defense to exonerate the deceived party.

12.They implement indoctrination of vulnerable children with propositions that do not conform to reality.

13.They compel employees to violate deeply held religious beliefs.(Lying is proscribed by Jewish and Christian doctrine.)

There appears to be no compelling justification for government or private entities to adopt policies attended by the described flaws and deficiencies and that mandate usage of opposite-sex names and pronouns based on self-identification, a self-identification which is solely in the mind and can change from day to day.Commitments to honesty and integrity are discarded so that a tiny number of employees or students can dissemble, resulting in the discomfort (whether or not verbalized) of employees and others who value honesty and transparency, to confusion and disruption in public and private discourse, and to an increase in potential adverse risks and consequences for those choosing to commence or continue with "transition."