Have we made our lives difficult with all those pronouns?
We recently wanted to rent out an apartment. A queer person came to see us and after a while began talking about other people. "They" were still somewhere. We got quite confused, we expected a couple, so who else was there? A family, a group of friends? Took them a while to explain to us that "they" was their spouse. When we later talked about them, we totally got confused ourselves, because constantly none of us knew whom we were talking about.
What I notice is, that in normal conversations about hetero people, even when the gender somehow is important, nothing is revealed and it is always "they". I am not a native English speaker. Is that my problem? When I read "they", I assume plural. More than one person. I totally get confused, up to the point, where I have to ask "why the hell can't you say him or her?" Because in 99% of these discussions there is not queer person involved.
Like... read the first paragraph. WE wanted to rent out an apartment. Isn't that a nice piece of information if that is me not wanting to identify myself or if that is us, my girlfriend and me (a man)? Is "we" also used in that context like "they"? Is that intended, that in every second conversation you do not know anymore whom the other side is talking about?