Now you can choose to be referred to as he or she

My friend Pat once decided to be gender-free, refusing to let us use "sexist" terms such as "he" or "she."

As a result, referring to Pat always sounded like one was talking about an intelligent dog: "This is my friend Pat, it's going to do Pilates in the gym for an hour, and then I'm going to play chess with it."

Another problem was deciding how to greet …