why it's wrong saying "latinX" and why you must stop using this X to make your phrases neutral
(written by a latino trans guy and reviewed by non-binary people)
I know so many people here still using this X to refer to non-binaries that uses neo-pronouns, like "latinX", but this is WRONG. it's kinda complicated but I'll try to explain a little bit about it.
it's complicated talking about neutral in romance languages because our languages are gendered and every word is kinda exclusively to male and female, it's not like english, where i can say "beautiful" and this word isn't exclusively male or female, it's 'neutral'.
well, we have to also point that: this X isn't good for some neurodivergents and people that uses screen reader (probably people with visions problems), this X is also bad if we gonna include non-binaries in real life and in our grammar, because we cant pronounce this X, like.. "latineécs"? I don't even know how to pronounce this word and what it means.
now, I'm gonna explain what we may use in Spanish and Portuguese
spanish:
— male pronouns: él -he
— female pronouns: ella -she
— neutral pronouns: elle -they
i think it's better than "ellx" that have no pronounce
— also, the articles may be "e", because in the end of the gendered words, we uses "a" for female and "o" for males but
what about neutral? if we use neutral it would be easier, an example is:
male: el es bonito
female: ella es bonita
neutral: elle es bonite
translation: he/she/they is/are beautiful
see? it's so much better than "elx es bonitx" and the screen reader can also read these words without any problem.
portuguese:
— male pronouns: ele -he
— female pronouns: ela -she
— neutral pronouns: elu -they
we have these discussions a lot of times here, the "elu/delu" (they/them) is our best option!!
— the articles/terminations in portuguese are also "e" and "ê", sometimes "u", how you can see here:
"elu é bonite" (they are beautiful)
"ê Luna é bonite" (Luna is beautiful)
see? so much better.
"but... why do you want neutral language?"
as I said before, Spanish and Portuguese are gendered, in "right" grammar only exists male and female, but we need to adapt neutral language for including everyone, if you don't know, the letter T on "LGBTQ" means "transgender", that is an umbrella term, where exists binary and non-binary, here an illustration:
