contract-law
What wording should I use to include non-binary pronouns in a contract?
<p>I'm working off of a template for a Terms of Service agreement for an app, and I would like to modify it to use non-binary pronouns (they/their/them) instead of gender-specific pronouns (he/she his/hers him/her). What, if any, language should be included at the head of the contract to explain that they/their/them is referring to a single person rather than a group of people? Right now I'm thinking of something like</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In this document when referring to the Licensee, we use the non-binary
  and non-gender-specific pronouns “they”, “their”, and “them”. These
  pronouns are not intended to reflect plurality of the Licensee, and
  can be replaced by he/his/him or she/her/hers where appropriate to
  reflect the Licensee’s identity.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I think you're viewing the use of pronouns and contracts wrong. You are speaking to the Licensee, not some third person. So you would say "You agree to give us all your bases", not "The]y agree to give us all your bases". If you <em>were</em> to use a third person pronoun in describing what the other person is gonna do and what you'll do for them, calling the Licensee "they" is positively confusing, and more likely to cause problems. I hope they see my point.</p>

<p>To be clear, you would <em>once</em> at the beginning of the contract define for example who the Licensee and the Licensor are, and then use these terms everywhere throughout the contract. Avoid pronouns since they are inherently vague, and you don't want that in a contract. If you think this makes the language clumsy, because the contract says "Licensee" two hundred times, that's fine. It's a contract, not a novel.</p>
