CNN commentator criticized after telling Democrats to ‘forget pronouns’

CNN’s political commentator Fareed Zakaria has come under fire for a recent article titled “Forget Pronouns: Democrats need to become the party of building things.”

Zakaria promoted his article in a Tweet, which said: “Democrats need to once more become the party that gets stuff done, builds things and makes government work for people. That’s a lot more important to most Americans than using the right pronouns.”

Chasten Buttigieg, who is the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, took to Twitter to voice his opposition to Zakaria’s stance.

“Addressing someone by the name/pronoun they prefer is free, easy, and kind. Using them builds community and belonging. Democrats can walk and chew gum. We can fix roads and build bridges while also making it a little easier to go about your life. That’s called freedom,” Chasten said.

He later added, “It is wildly inappropriate to instruct Democrats to toss aside an entire group of Americans in order to win. Democrats are making historic investments and bold moves while proposing life-saving and democracy-strengthening legislation that republicans continue to vote no on.”

Start Me Up podcast hot Kimberley Johnson also took aim at Zakaria by saying, “Who is running on pronouns, @FareedZakaria? No candidate is making pronouns part of their platform. It is a social issue that most Democrats embrace… This is lazy journalism and it’s transphobic. You’re singling out one group and it’s gross.”

Vaniry Fair Editor Franklin Leonard felt there was no reason to make only one choice. “Why are we acting like we have to choose between building things and using the right pronouns. Do both,” Leonard Tweeted.

D.E Anderson, a transgender author, strongly disagreed with Zakaria, Tweeting: “Oh f**k this. We can do all that while respecting who people are. Also notice the rhetorical trick here: reduce trans issues to ‘pronouns’ and dismiss it as silly. Stops you from having to consider that Republicans are hellbent on making it easier to kill us.”

Zakaria defended his reasoning and responded to critics on Twitter, saying: “I hope it is clear that I am NOT arguing against any minority groups. (I belong to several myself.) I am arguing against giving Republicans an easy way to demagogue and divert attention.” He added, “If the Democrats are wiped out in the midterms, it will not help these embattled groups any!”

After criticism of the sentiment, The Washington Post changed the article’s headline to “Democrats need to become the party of building things.”