A longtime 90-year-old volunteer for the National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society has been let go for not understanding “gender pronouns.”
Fran Itkoff, who’d reportedly been volunteering with the MS Society for 60 years, was let go after she merely got confused and asked questions about so-called “gender pronouns.”
“I was confused. I didn’t know what it was and what it meant,” she recalled during an exclusive interview with Chaya Raichik, the owner of Libs of TikTok.
Listen:
Itkoff leads the Long Beach Lakewood MS support group, which her husband used to lead before he died 20 years ago.
The drama started when Itkoff became confused seeing other MS Society members signing their emails with their so-called “gender pronouns.”
“I was confused. I didn’t know what it was, what it meant,” she recalled to Raichik. “I’ve seen it on a couple of letters that had come in after the person’s name they had the pronouns, but I didn’t know what that meant.”
And so she decided to ask an MS Society rep for clarification.
“Finally I was talking to her [the rep] and thought I would ask ‘what does it mean’ and let her tell me,” Itkoff recalled. “She said that it meant ‘they were all-inclusive,’ which didn’t make sense to me.”
Itkoff was evidently confused over how “she/her” pronouns could be “all-inclusive” if they only referred to females, not males.
A few days after her interaction with the rep, she received a note from the MS Society informing her that they were axing her.
“At the end of the day, end of the week, I got an email from her saying they were sorry, but they had to ask me to step down as a volunteer for the MS society,” she recalled.
“The verbiage she said was you didn’t abide by their diversity, equity and inclusion, so they had to ask her to step down and she can’t be a part of the MS society as a volunteer,” her daughter, Elle Hamilton, added.
The note can be seen below:
“[I]t has come to our attention that there has been a failure to abide by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion guidelines during your time as a volunteer. Unfortunately, based on this situation, we have made the difficult decision to have you step down from your volunteer position, effectively immediately,” it reads.
Hamilton, Itkoff’s daughter, was stunned over the irony of the so-called “inclusive” organization excluding a “90-year-old disabled woman who volunteered for over 60 years.”
Itkoff herself was also shocked.
“I was completely shocked as I read that,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that, I had to read it a couple times to see if I’m getting what she said.”
There was surprise due to the fact that Itkoff and her family have in times past received a number of awards from the MS Society for their work, including a Volunteer Lifetime Achievement award in 2008.
At one point, Itkoff’s husband was even flown out to the White House to meet then-President Jimmy Carter after winning the National MS Father of the Year award.
“It’s sad that they’re discriminating against her. MS doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anybody, and yet they’re discriminating against her trying to help just because she asked a question to explain what pronouns were,” Hamilton said.
They’re not the only ones upset. So are many members of the public who’ve been hounding the MS Society on X, demanding an explanation for their discriminatory decision to drop Itkoff.
Look:
Why did you can a 90 year old lady for asking what pronouns are? Disgusting! Canceling my donations
— MysticOrc (@MysticOrc) February 15, 2024
Multiple Sclerosis DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE —- why is the National MS Society discriminating against Fran?
— T L Bean (@TLBean222) February 15, 2024
Seems like a bit of elder abuse here. Why doesn’t she have a right to question the pronoun thing. I will no longer be a donor to your organization
— bostonoriginal (@bostonoriginal1) February 15, 2024
@mssociety You fire a 90 year old volunteer who has dedicated 60 years of her life to your cause because one pronoun Nazi complained that the 90 year old asked her to explain?? Your leaders are disgusting. Spineless. Ask Bud Light how this worked out for them.
— @thebeartruth (@thebeartruth3) February 15, 2024
A woman gives you 60 years and, most likely, all of her heart! Why not take the opportunity to help “educate” her about pronouns. Will you accept donations from people who don’t understand or don’t agree with all this pronoun stuff??? Of course you will. Despicable hypocrites
— Lilly Belle Wild (@LillyBelleWild) February 15, 2024
The MS Society has since chosen to double down, according to Raichik.
“They suggest the 90-year-old volunteer made people feel ‘unsafe.’ They also warn staff not to comment or talk about it on social media,” she reported via a tweet on Wednesday.
The tweet included a screenshot of an internal memo sent by the MS Society’s executive vice president and general counsel.
Look:
BREAKING: @mssociety is doubling down on their decision to force a 90-year-old volunteer to step down for breaking their “inclusion policies” after she asked what pronouns are.
They suggest the 90-year-old volunteer made people feel “unsafe.” They also warn staff not to comment… https://t.co/rhNSSPKiHQ pic.twitter.com/Lg6DnFIZK0
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 15, 2024
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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