Hu/hu? Harris for President campaign presses job applicants to pick zir pronouns

The Kamala Harris presidential campaign wants job applicants to designate their pronouns — and there are plenty of options.

The Harris for President online application form offers a wealth of gender-neutral pronoun choices, including “they/them,” “xe/xem,” “ze/hir,” “ey/em,” “hir/hir,” “fae/faer,” and “hu/hu,” along with the more pedestrian “he/him” and “she/her.”

Would-be campaign workers shouldn’t feel hemmed in by the campaign’s list, either.

There are also boxes for “custom” pronouns and “use name only,” although the application encourages candidates to make a selection.

“Let the employer know what pronouns you use so that they can address you correctly,” the application says.

The so-called neopronouns are considered gender-neutral, although some have additional meanings.

“Hu/hu” is short for “human,” while “fae/faer” pronouns “may have connotations to faeries for a given individual,” according to the Urban Dictionary.

The questions don’t end with pronouns.

The campaign also wants to know about the candidate’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion with questions such as, “How would you contribute to building a diverse culture?”

The application includes a section for “U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Information” and an “Optional Diversity Survey” with specific questions about race, sex, gender identity, and preferred pronouns, as well as sexuality, disability and veteran status.

“Our company values diversity,” the campaign says. “To ensure that we comply with reporting requirements and to learn more about how we can increase diversity in our candidate pool, we invite you to voluntarily provide demographic information in a confidential survey at the end of this application.”

The application also stresses that participation in the survey is “strictly voluntary and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment or affect your job application.”

The vice president, who’s running against former President Donald Trump in the November election, has emphasized her preferred pronouns in the past.

“My name is Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit,” she said at a July 2022 event marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

She also has a lengthy record of supporting DEI causes, including repeatedly pushing “equity” instead of equality of opportunity.

“We have always fought for equality. But now we are also talking much more rightly about equity, understanding that we must be clear-eyed about the fact that … not everyone starts out from the same place,” Ms. Harris said in a 2021 speech.

“Some people start out on first base, some people start out on third base. And if the goal is truly about equality, it has to be about a goal of saying everybody should end up in the same place. And since we didn’t start in the same place, some folks might need more equitable distribution,” she concluded.