I've been moving all week and missed the Chelsea Manning wars here.

[Ms. Toad]

80. When you are in a thread discussing the transition (as that thread was)

And it is clear that you know of the request to use female pronouns (among other things, it was in the OP), why do you need time?

You can't remember from opening the thread to composing a post that she has asked for female pronouns to be used? Not believable.
It just slipped out, out of habit? You have all the time in the world to compose your post. You can reread it as many times as you want before hitting post. And - if you make a mistake you can easily edit it to fix the mistake.

Slipping in an interactive conversation is completely understandable (and acknowledged by the OP)
Slipping occasionally in other conversations is completely understandable (and acknowledged by the OP)
Not being aware of the request and using the wrong gender until you are aware of it is completely understandable (and acknowledged by the OP).

The OP was in response to comments like this (just a few I can find quickly):

• "Manning is a man until a sex change operation makes him a female. This shit with calling him "She" in the absence of said sex change operation is fucking insane."
  
• "Until Chelsea has surgery he is still a "he""
  
• "That is the way that it is. He should be allowed to have a sex change operation because not allowing that is cruel punishment, but until that happens, in my view, Manning is a man."
  
• "Just because someone tells you there is now a distinction that as far as any of us knew never existed before doesn't mean that is real."
  
• "But if I happen to catch that person coming out of the shower without a towel, and certain male parts are there, it's absolutely fucking with my head to insist I call that person a woman."
  
• "Using the "wrong" pronoun is not even in the same league with a racial slur unless the wrong pronoun is "it"...which is totally offensive."
  
• " I'll continue to refer to Private Manning as, well, Private Manning until he gets his kick. Then It will be up to the government; if they grant him a gender change then it will be a she, if not,? IT?"
  
• "I don't see someone using the "wrong" pronoun as being a burning issue compared to all the other things Trans people have to deal with...one of those things being outright hatred from people who have no empathy at all for their plight. . . . I don't play games. Don't show me orange and tell me I have to call it green."
  
• "I'm sorry, but...in order for me to "be respectful", it means I have to suspend my belief in something I know as fact."

Getting gender right is important, and to deliberately misgender is disrespectful not only to Chelsea Manning, but to trans* individuals and those who love them who are members of DU. There's leeway, as noted above, but don't jump into a thread posted out of frustration arising from deliberately hurtful comments like the ones above and expect a gentle response to excuses about why you can't get the gender right in an online discussion (meaning you have time to think and gender-check your post) about how important it is to trans* individuals that you get gender right.

The thread wasn't directed to folks who were not aware of the announcement, or to folks engaging in interactive conversations about Manning who slip out of habit without the opportunity to review their comments before they are out of their mouths. It was directed to people like those whose comments I quoted above. While I try to be more polite about it, I have a lot of sympathy for those whose response is less measured.