Incidentally I have a girl cat with a "boy" name (Flynn)¹ so I gleefully tell people about her and let them misgender my cat and then gently correct them so they get a positive experience with gentle correction in a low stakes gendering situation.
And THEN, I tell them how this is a practice run in case they misgender a person, who is likely to have a much more complicated relationship with gender than my cat. And remind them that no one (value=possibly a few outliers) actually wants them to Perform Distress and self-flagellate, here.
And I tell them that these conversations usually go something like this:
Initially: "it's they/them, actually"/"thanks for telling me. They/them, got it."
Sometime later if a slip happens: "I was talking to Kai and he said, sorry, they said they were fine with tacos or shawarma, but no five guys; they have a peanut allergy which I did not know about before this week"/"yeah apparently they thought the peanuts were what made Thai food spicy for years, not the peppers. Go figure."
And I do this because people fall all over themselves to not misgender people's pets, even the dogs they meet for 8 seconds on their morning walk and never see again. They have the skills to not misgender people.
So I'm trying to do my part to remind them, gently and kindly, that they already have the tools and they just need to learn that their flat head screw driver also works in a phillips head screw. (since my personal genderfeels top out at "protect trans & nb LGBTQ+ sibs at all costs". )
Tldr I highly recommend adopting a pet with a name that does not "match" their sex and using this method to educate other cis people.
*
Footnote: cat
1. My cat whom I share custody of with my bff is named after Flynn Carsen, Librarian, from The Librarians. After we stole the half feral gremlin and her siblings from her cat mom and found out she was not a he, the name had already asheased to the cat and no other name would do.
P.s. here is my cat for reading the entire post
