Allow people to put pronouns on their badges

Letting people put pronouns on their badges reduces the risk of being misgendered, and makes the event more comfortable for trans/non-binary attendees.

I know people who like to write pronouns on their badges, to avoid being misgendered. (This is mostly, but not exclusively, trans and non-binary friends, whose appearance doesn’t match common expectations for their gender.)

You can do this in a number of ways:

• Coloured sharpies on the registration desk
• Pronoun stickers
• Offer to print it on the badge (I saw this at an AVEN conference last July, and we did it for PyCon UK 2018)

You shouldn’t force people to write pronouns on their badges – but give them the option if they want to. (Requiring pronouns can cause problems for a trans person who’s not out to everybody at your event. They have to choose between misgendering themselves or outing themselves. Neither are pleasant!)

Let people choose which pronoun badge/sticker they want, if any. Don’t hand them the one that seems to match their appearance, which is a mistake that happened in at least one conference.