Ms Society Defends Staff Who Sacked 90-Year-Old Volunteer Because She 'Asked What Pronouns Meant

[webbo3]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13088453/ms-society-slammed-firing-elderly-volunteer-pronouns.html

Not the uk but similar to the John Lewis post.

These charities and businesses will learn the hard way.

[jackthehat]

Defending the indefensible.

Another organisation which will learn the hard way that alienating your core supporters in the pursuit of nonsense will never end well.

[youngmafbog]

Why didnt they just explain it to her?  It's a fair enough question if someone is unsure.

[newmodarmy]

It was in US so hopefully wouldn't happen here. However I'm wondering exactly what she's said and whether she was openly questioning/disagreeing with the company policy.

I was intrugued by "Itkoff was let go via email after a representative at the company asked her began to start using pronouns on her email signature, but she did not know what it meant according to an interview she conducted with Libs of TikTok."

 Is TikTok the current place to go for 90 year olds to air a grievance? I've not even used Twitter yet

 

[naomi24]

I think the charities who support this nonsense are learning the hard way.  They're losing such a lot of support.

[youngmafbog]

Next stop ask how much the CEO et al are taking out of each $.

[Old_Geezer]

Sounds utterly ridiculous.

 

And totally expected in this insane age.

[Alan365]

Silly beggars will probably have cost themselves a good few donations 

[david small]

Have you seen the film Idiocracy? It's coming true....

[Atheist]

Can anyone here explain what the woman did 'wrong'? I find the 'story' extremely vague.

 

[ToraToraTora]

Yep it's the new fascism.

[youngmafbog]

Aetheist, I suspect they simply wanted rid of "the old fossil" and to their mind this was an easy way to do it, i.e. take offence at her not knowing the 'right-on' ways.

[Atheist]

I was shocked at the poor quality of so-called journalism. I've heard Private Eye called a comic, but the Mail doesn't even seem capable of explaining the facts; perhaps that would get in the way their desire to stoke 'culture wars'?

[youngmafbog]

The Mail is worse than appauling for journalism.  And they even want people to pay for it now.

It smacks of cheap interns, particularly for the on line.

But it is free and useful for putting as a link everyone can read to get context to a post.

[barry1010]

For those not appreciating the standards of DM journalism, this is a better report https://nypost.com/2024/02/15/us-news/calif-volunteer-fran-itkoff-90-forced-out-of-ms-society-job-for-asking-about-pronoun-usage/

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah, but you can't comment there ;-)

[johnmarks]

The National MS Society has defended firing a 90-year-old volunteer for breaching its diversity and inclusion policy after she asked what pronouns were. Fran Itkoff had served the non-profit for multiple sclerosis patients for 60 years, with her late husband running the Long Beach Lakewood chapter prior to his death.

[douglas9401]

They'd get more support from older viewers if the changed the MS to MISS.

[barry1010]

Is that supposed to be funny, Douglas? 

[Old_Geezer]

Folk who suffer from MS don't need a charity that foolish.

 

No sane person understands what adding pronouns to an e-mail signature has to do with inclusivety. Got plenty to do with alienation and division though, not to mention, as in this case, victimisation.

[douglas9401]

Yes Barry, it is.