I don't ask for feedback and have never received feedback about using pronouns, because the correct pronoun for somebody doesn't depend on the person's opinion.
I completely disagree. The only important thing that correct pronoun usage depends upon is that person's opinion.
Why should your opinion matter at all?
Tom
What an odd question.
Upthread, you accused Mr. Meriwether of behaving unprofessionally. But I think it's a dead cert that Mr. Meriwether doesn't see himself that way. He thinks he was perfectly reasonable and professional. And yet you went ahead and called what he did unprofessional. Why did you do that? You did it because that's your opinion. Well, why should your opinion matter at all? When you're applying adjectives to another person, the only important thing that correct adjective usage depends on is that person's opinion, right?
Wrong. The default presumption with speech is that what a person says is up to her, and what other people say is up to them. This is called "free speech". Your opinion determines what you say; my opinion determines what I say; Metaphor's opinion determines what he says; and so forth. This is because your mouth is not my property, nor mine yours. So the right question was never "Why should Metaphor's opinion matter at all?" It's painfully obvious why it should matter at all -- his opinion should matter because it's his mouth. The right question is "Why should the referred-to person's opinion matter at all?"
In short, you are reversing burden-of-proof. "Why should your opinion matter at all?" has become a widely repeated meme in this controversy, but all the people reciting it appear to have failed to notice that they are reversing burden-of-proof. So first exhibit a good reason for why the default presumption about speech should be set aside in this case -- exhibit a good reason for why any person ought to have no say in what he himself says --
and only then challenge somebody to justify his assumption that he owns his own mouth.