The United States Navy is raising eyebrows over an instructional video teaching sailors how to use the correct pronouns.
"Using the right pronouns is a simple way to affirm someone's identity," says Jony Rozon, an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. “It is a signal of acceptance and respect.”
Conchy Vasquez, also an engineer with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, then explains what to do if misgendering happens.
"You correct yourself and move on, or you accept the correction and move on," she says. "The most important thing I can tell you is, do not put the burden of making you feel good about your mistake on the person you just misgendered."
Both wear rainbow shirts in the video, which highlights "the importance of using correct pronouns as well as polite etiquette when you may not be sure of someone's pronouns," the Navy said.
The film, posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, is an Official US Navy Video by John Vannucci.
The instructional video was sharply criticized on social media.
The fact that the Navy has this new training video to create a pronoun "safe space" while sending them to get their heads blown off in war zones for Raytheon is absolutely ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/CpcF3BNqWE
— Gamer Jon (@MillerStream) June 21, 2022
So let me get this straight- China just christened a new aircraft carrier and the US Navy is forcing sailors to take pronoun training. People need to wake up. https://t.co/tfmdBhyzM7
— evan hafer (@EvanHafer) June 21, 2022
Sesame street story time? Nah this is another American embarrassment, woke Navy pronoun training, no doubt this will be a battlefield winner, our enemies are laughing at us #FJB pic.twitter.com/dkMN6hVxHE
— ?? Hawaii girl is Ultra Maga ?? (@Grama641) June 21, 2022
You cannot have a functioning military and indulge this pronoun nonsense. It’s a national security risk to the cohesion of the force, especially the they/them stuff. If you care more about your pronouns than your country, you should not be in the military. https://t.co/MtrUAjuPNn
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) June 20, 2022