Oh that makes sense, sorry I misunderstood!

Yep, they/them/theirs is used in the same place as he/him/his or she/her/hers. It/it/its should not be used for people unless someone explicitly says those are their preferred pronouns. “It” is typically used for objects and non-human animals, so it could be seen as rude to refer to a human as “it.” If unsure, use they/them.

Using “they” for a singular person has been used since at least the 14th century, so there’s no need to feel uncomfortable with it. I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia page on Singular they, which touches on its history.

A similar example is “you.” “You” used to be only a plural, with “thou” being the singular, but over time it fell out of fashion and now “you” can be used as singular or plural, like how “they” can be singular or plural.

Singular “they” was criticised by some people hundreds of years after it started being used. But language cannot be prescribed; it is determined by how people use it.

It’s “whet your appetite” in case anyone was interested. But the misspelling is probably part of the meme

Yeah I was reading about the editing guidelines and they have a principle that surprised me at first:

Verifiability, not truth.

Basically, you could edit an article with information you know is true (like your bedrooms or fireplaces), but truth is not the criteria that edits get tested upon. It must be verifiable by a source.

Pretty cool that you didn’t just give up and actually got the local newspaper to interview you! That’s awesome!