A prominent LGBT TikTok creator said the trend of "neopronouns" such as xe/xyr, ze/zir and even leaf in everyday speech damages his community.
"Most of us, gays, trans whoever, they think these neopronouns are ridiculous," Link Lauren told Fox News Digital. "It's just this small contingent of people, this fringe group, who adopt these things, and then we all get blamed for it."
CNN earlier this month published "A guide to neopronouns, from ae to ze," a guide explaining various neopronouns — gender-neutral or nonbinary words that can be used instead of he/him and she/her. Terms like xe/xyr, ze/zir, ze/hir, fae/faer, ey/em/eir and ae/aer are "commonly used by nonbinary and trans people," according to the article.
In the article, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign English and linguists professor Dennis Baron argued that neopronouns should be used and respected like other pronouns.
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"People like to have a say in how they’re identified," Baron said. "Refusing to let people self-identify is a way of excluding them."
Lauren said this movement is "nuts" and "crazy," adding that using neopronouns sounds like "a foreign language."
Only 4% of LGBTQ youth in the United States use neopronouns, according to a 2020 report by the Trevor Project.
The CNN article also described "nounself neopronouns" which use "nature and other inspirations as nonbinary and genderless descriptors." The words "pup," star" and "leaf" were used as examples.
"I was really disappointed in CNN for even giving this any validity, any credence, because they put forth this narrative that if you're against neopronouns, if you're against someone identifying as a leaf, then you're against the LGBT movement," Lauren said.
Lauren said he fears being lumped in with people in the LGBT community pushing neopronouns.
"I have absolutely no argument in favor of them," he said. "I feel like there's this big difference now between LGBT people who want to assimilate and fit into society and then those who want to live on the fringes and adopt these things."
"I think if someone wants to identify as a tree, they have much bigger issues, and we should not have to respect that," he added.
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He's concerned about children being introduced to neopronouns, arguing that time would be better spent improving students’ math and reading levels, whichare at their lowest levels in years.
"Teach our kids how to read, how to write," he said. "Leave the made up nonsense pronouns on the playground."
Lauren believes the movement for neopronouns stems from college campuses.
"They're born out of just people with no lives who need new hobbies, who want to just glom onto something," he said.
"People adopting neopronouns — random words that aren't even in the English dictionary — they're so self-absorbed and so conceited that they expect everyone else to learn all these new words," Lauren continued. "And if you get it wrong, you must be a bigot, and I'm not buying into that."
Click here to hear more from Lauren.
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