"Playing the pronoun game" is the act of concealing sexual orientation in conversation by not using a gender-specific pronoun for a partner or a lover, which would reveal the sexual orientation of the person speaking. Most often, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (LGB) employ the pronoun game when conversing with people to whom they have not "come out". In some situations, where a LGB person revealing their sexual orientation would have adverse consequences (such as the loss of their job), playing the pronoun game is seen to be a necessary act of concealment. The gender-specific pronouns of a language distinguish between male and female people (and often of animals as well). ... A partner is: a domestic partner. ... An intimate relationship is a interpersonal relationship where there is a great deal of physical or emotional intimacy. ... Sexual orientation refers to the direction of an individuals sexuality, normally conceived of as falling into several significant categories based around the sex or gender that the individual finds attractive. ... The abbreviation LGB may refer to: Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals. ... Coming out of the closet (very often shortened to coming out in winking reference to the public introduction of debutantes) describes the voluntary public announcement of ones (often homosexual or bisexual) sexual orientation or gender identity. ...

The pronoun game involves deception without lying, by letting the listener assume a sexual orientation that they would regard as inoffensive. It also involves not drawing the listener's attention to the fact that the sex of a pronoun's antecedent is not being specified. As such, playing the pronoun game involves: This article or section includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... A lie is a statement made by someone who believes or suspects it to be false, in the expectation that the hearers may believe it. ... Look up assumption in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In grammar, an antecedent is the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun refers. ...

• re-phrasing sentences such that they avoid the need for third-person singular sex-specific pronouns (e.g. "It was decided that we would eat out," rather than "She decided that we would eat out."), often using circumlocution;
• using gender-neutral language such as "firefighter" rather than "fireman", phrases such as "my partner" or "my significant other", or the person's name where it isn't sex or gender-specific; and
• using gender-neutral pronouns that have long since entered common usage, such as singular they, without employing unusual, and thus attention-calling, gender-neutral pronouns such as xe or sie and hir.

Often, people playing the pronoun game regard it as stressful. Often, the blatant concealment of pronoun-gender makes the sexual orientation of the player just as obvious as it would have been had the game never been played. Periphrasis is a figure of speech where the meaning of a word or phrase is expressed by many or several words. ... Gender-neutral language (gender-generic, gender-inclusive, non-sexist, or sex-neutral language) is language that attempts to refer neither to males nor females when discussing an abstract or hypothetical person whose sex cannot otherwise be determined. ... Significant other Significant Other is the second album by Limp Bizkit, released on June 22, 1999. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In non-sexist language, gender-neutral or epicene pronouns neither reveal nor imply sex or gender when referring to people, animals or things. ... In English grammar, singular they (or epicene they) is the use of the pronoun they and its inflected forms (them, their, etc. ... Xe, xyr, and xem are gender-neutral pronouns designed to supplement the existing pronouns in the English language. ... Sie and hir are inflected forms of a proposed gender-neutral third person singular personal pronoun for the English language (see gender-neutral pronouns). ...

An example of the pronoun game in popular culture was in the The Pet Shop Boys cover version of the song Always on My Mind released in 1987. The (best known) Elvis Presley version had a line which ran: Girl, I'm sorry I was blind, which Neil Tennant sung as I'm so sorry I was blind. Tennant himself disclosed his homosexuality in 1993. Pet Shop Boys (often used without the definite article the) are a highly influential UK electronic music act. ... In popular music a cover version is a new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded song. ... Always On My Mind is a song originally recorded by Brenda Lee and released on 12 June 1972, with music and lyrics by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson Thompson. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ... Neil Tennant (right) with collaborator Chris Lowe (left) Neil Francis Tennant (born July 10, 1954 in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England) is an English musician, who, with his colleague Chris Lowe, makes up the successful pop duo, Pet Shop Boys. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

See also

• situational sexual behaviour
• Chasing Amy

Situational sexual behavior is sexual behavior of a kind that is different from what is usual for that person or from what this person eventually prefers, due to a social environment that permits or encourages those acts. ... Chasing Amy is a 1997 romantic comedy about two comic book artists: Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), a heterosexual male, and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian-identified bisexual woman. ...

References

• Wofford, Brittany. "Fun with pronouns", 2002-06-19.
• The pronoun game (and other related phenomena). Retrieved on June 12, 2005.
• A look at language and gender in Latin and English. Language and Culture, ANTH 3063. Retrieved on June 12, 2005.
• Pronouns. The Sissy Show. Retrieved on June 12, 2005. presenting the difficulty of the pronoun game for transsexuals satirically in the form of a children's song
• Straight Friends at Fest. Michigan Womyn's Music Festival Discussion Forum. Retrieved on June 12, 2005. which discusses how heterosexual people also play the pronoun game to hide their sexual orientation in predominantly homosexual environments
• The pronoun game. Retrieved on June 12, 2005.
• "Who's That Lady?", CityBeat, 2001-05-16.
• Anthropological diary. Retrieved on June 14, 2005. which discusses the avoidance of lying
• For an example of a pronoun game used in the writing of a novel, read Le Bonheur dans le crime by Jacqueline Harpman (Stock, 1993 and 1996 and Labor, 1999)

For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 195 days remaining. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Heterosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love or sexual desire exclusively for members of the opposite sex or gender, contrasted with homosexuality and distinguished from bisexuality and asexuality. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (137th in leap years). ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jacqueline Harpman (born July 5, 1929) is a Belgian writer who writes in French. ...

External links

• "The pronoun game" at Everything2