There's an extra layer of post-colonialism in this situation, but it's otherwise almost identical to the discussion happening in English about gendered pronouns. I think the following can both be true:
1. It's bad to tell people that they're using their native language badly if you're not a native speaker (especially in a scenario where there's a social power dynamic at play, like Spanish speakers trying to navigate discrimination in the US). People making things harder for immigrants without compassion for their challenges are probably making a mistake.
2. It's bad to say "this whole thing is just stupid" about a radical shift in language that's being deliberately embraced by younger people to break down discriminatory gender traditions, just because it's new and you're mildly confused about it. People making things harder for gender-nonconforming people are probably making a mistake.
Replace “younger people” with “a few younger people from a particular socioeconomic class” to be more accurate.
The eternal outraged youth will always find a few hobby horses to ride. Sometimes they lead to good things. This is a particularly smelly one, unfortunately.
It’s not bad to say “this whole thing is just stupid”. It’s just incomplete to say…it’s also musically ugly (language is a song of sorts) and culturally insulting. The intent is understandable, the linguistic implementation ridiculous. How about actual younger people developing another, more beautiful, culturally acceptable, word to achieve the same objective? Why continue to ride this malodorous hobby horse their elders forced between their legs? (I think that image is acceptably gender-nonconforming, and oddly appropriate.)
Anyway, according to la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española
the body responsible for the preservation of the Spanish language across the Spanish-speaking world, it isn’t a Spanish word (not acknowledged in the official dictionary)
BTW your phrase “mildly confused” is demeaning and insulting to readers who would genuinely struggle with incorporating this in their normal Spanish speech after decades of surviving without it. Bit ironic for someone concerned with “sensitivity” to write.
> The eternal outraged youth will always find a few hobby horses to ride. Sometimes they lead to good things. This is a particularly smelly one, unfortunately.
Nonbinary people face real discrimination, including but not limited to the dismissal of that fight as pointless outrage.
> it’s also musically ugly (language is a song of sorts)
This is ridiculous. Ugly-sounding words will always exist.
> and culturally insulting ... How about actual younger people developing another, more beautiful, culturally acceptable, word to achieve the same objective
What does any of this even mean? Real Spanish-speaking nonbinary young people did come up with a working solution. If you think it's too ugly sounding, fine, you get to have an opinion. If you think it shouldn't exist because it's too ugly sounding to you, honestly, fuck off. That's not a valid complaint.
I am aware of La Asociación. I understand that they literally make the rules. I need you to understand that they do not actually make the rules. Language is how people communicate. New words happen.
So on the one hand:
1. You don't like the sound of the word
2. An intrinsically conservative body hasn't yet recognized the word
On the other hand:
1. Nonbinary would simply like a word to refer to themselves because one doesn't exist.
But, I will concede that it was pretty rude of me to write "mildly confused". I shouldn't have been so uncharitable.
Nonbinary claim to exist, but no human to date has been able to produce viable sperm and eggs simultaneously.
There is a gender spectrum, agreed, but that doesn't mean we can't classify people into a singular description, and it surely doesn't mean we need to change entire languages to appease made up oppression.
Gay? Makes sense and no issues. No demand for language changes.
Nonbinary,trans? Totally made up because they want to 1. Signal their oppression status and therefore be part of the proletariat, or 2. A true mental issue is at foot. Neither are justifications for removing gendered language, and plastic surgery doesn't remove the biological differences between men and women.
The way I see it, this is going to have to go up to the Supreme Court, where it will be determined that either there is no difference between men and women for legal purposes, and therefore any separation is discrimination (goodbye gendered bathrooms, women's sports, women in engineering clubs, etc.), or we will in fact determine there are biological differences which justify separation in specific circumstances (sports, locker rooms), and no amount of plastic surgery will allow one to change their classification. Of course, that is only insofar as anyone else in those environments could tell (aka having your penis out in a women's locker room would be the tell).
1. It's bad to tell people that they're using their native language badly if you're not a native speaker (especially in a scenario where there's a social power dynamic at play, like Spanish speakers trying to navigate discrimination in the US). People making things harder for immigrants without compassion for their challenges are probably making a mistake.
2. It's bad to say "this whole thing is just stupid" about a radical shift in language that's being deliberately embraced by younger people to break down discriminatory gender traditions, just because it's new and you're mildly confused about it. People making things harder for gender-nonconforming people are probably making a mistake.