Can I have no pronouns? Please call me by my name 🏳️🌈
June has been working as a designer for roughly 3 years for both early-stage start-ups and large corporations. Before becoming a designer, June used to be a geographer (spatial researcher) and UX engineer.
June is mentoring Portfolio Review, Career Advice, and Interview Techniques. Ask her about: Interaction Design, UX Design, and Product Design.
Book a call with June on ADPList: https://adplist.org/mentors/june-punkasem
Just call me by my name, I don’t want to have any specific pronoun or be bound to any specific gender spectrum. I just want to be myself.
1. Could you explain to me more about “Just call me by my name.”
June: It means I don’t want to associate myself with the pronoun in order to identify my sexual orientation or gender identity. But, it’s just me that I prefer people to call me by my name instead of using a specific pronoun. I think it’s a good practice to ask people what their preferred pronoun is, and treat it like asking their name.
Asking and correctly using someone’s pronouns is one of the most basic ways to show your respect for their gender identity. Let people be themselves.
2. What should people do to show that they have respect for LGBTQIA+ at the workplace?
June: I believe we should let people be their authentic selves no matter when, what, and where they are (as long as it’s workplace appropriate, haha). That’s how you can bring the best of yourself to work and drive creativity. For the workplace environment, especially in the creative field like design, I truly believe that diversity can drive much more creativity and innovation.
Being LGBTQIA+ does not affect any of our work performance, work values, and competencies.
So, the best way to show that people have respect for LGBTQIA+ at work is to respect them for who they are, be their allies, and support LGBTQIA+ friendly environments. Let them be themselves.
3. How is your work-life at Microsoft?
June: I actually really appreciate the culture at Microsoft. They did an excellent job on training and creating a super friendly and inclusive environment for LGBTQIA+.
People respect you for who you are. You feel very welcome, and not even once I feel I don’t belong there. We have a lot of training to talk about inclusivity and unconscious biases as well. This helps you open up your mindset significantly.
4. People often ask you repeatedly what they can call you.
June: There might be a case where a few people repeatedly asked me what my preferred pronoun is, even if I told them to call me by my name. I do appreciate what they asked. It really shows that they care, and they want me to be my authentic self. But, it’s not that I don’t want to be my authentic self; calling me by my name makes me feel true to myself because I don’t want to identify myself to be he/him, she/her, or they/them.
So, when someone keeps asking me that question, I will start asking myself, do I need to use he/him or she/her? It would be great if they start calling me by name instead of using any pronoun.
To be honest, I sometimes wonder why we really need to use pronunciation. Why don’t we call people by names? There might be a case that some people really want to bound themselves to a specific pronoun.
So at the end of the day, I want to say each individual is different, and you should respect them for who they are without putting any social rules on them. Then it would help if you respected them too.
5. In other cases, some people are not sure who they want to be? What is your recommendation?
June: Don’t force yourself. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Just take your time to learn about yourself and what makes you happy. Gender is WAYYY TOO FLUID. It could also change over time.
Just be yourself, do what makes you happy. If today you feel that you want to be he/him and tomorrow you want to be she/her, that is fine. Don’t ever worry about it.
Thank you so much for sharing with me. It was such a pleasure to learn more about you and your experience. 🥰
