Mumbai, October 20: International Pronouns Day is an annual event that seeks to make sharing and respecting people's pronouns commonplace. The event is observed every year on the third Wednesday of October. This year it will be observed on October 21. The day was first observed with participants from 25 countries on October 17, 2018. The International Pronouns Day was founded by Shige Sakurai with the help of Genny Beemyn.

The main objective of the International Pronouns Day is to make people aware of the importance of referring others by the pronouns they determine for themselves, referring to people by the pronouns they determine is common courtesy and is also basic to human dignity. It is the same as calling someone by their name. International Pronouns Day specifically refers to third person personal pronouns which is used to describe them while talking about them.

Being referred to by the wrong pronouns particularly affects transgender and gender independent people. Preferred Gender Pronouns (PGPs) is used as a way to promote equity and inclusion for transgender and genderqueer people.

In English, when declaring a person's preferred pronouns, subject, object, and possessive pronouns is oftenly used. The most determined pronouns by an indivisual are 'she, her, hers', 'he, him, his', or 'they, them, theirs'. The pronouns preferred may also include non-traditional ones such as 'ze' and 'zir'.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 21, 2020 08:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).