SirSamuel2d ago

What is a gender neutral honorific for non-binary folk?

https://lemmy.world/post/44637079

What is a gender neutral honorific for non-binary folk? - Lemmy.World

I was raised to address strangers and those I wish to show social deference to as “Sir” or “Ma’am”. It’s a difficult habit to break, as it is deeply engrained. What is an equivalent gender neutral honorific that is relatively common in English? If I can’t break the habit I’d rather have a substitute word to use instead of an awkward pause in the middle of addressing someone I’d just use Google to ask but I’d rather ask the people directly rather than an AI generated answer based off of Reddit threads

Show threadCerebralHawks2d ago
FWIW, Sir is gender neutral in the military — this came up in Star Trek Voyager, anyway. Basically if your senior officer isn’t male, they’re sir until they tell you otherwise.
Show threadHikingVet
Sir is gender neutral in fictional militaries. Every woman holding a commission I ever encountered was ma’am. Didn’t matter the country.
Mar 23 at 6:23pmWeb
Show threadCerebralHawks1d ago
Yes, Star Trek is fictional.
Show threadDasus1d ago
But the way you’ve formatted yourself first comment is “this thing is a military thing, as can be seen from this fictional military” which doesn’t necessarily imply said thing is fictional even though the military you’ve used as an example is.