Pronoun ‘hen’ can be used without revealing gender – either because it is unknown, because the person is transgender, or the information is superfluous. The official dictionary of the Swedish language will introduce a gender-neutral pronoun in April, editors at the Swedish Academy have announced.

Australian icon Barry Humphries has been widely criticised for again making anti-trans statements. In an interview, Humphries said that being transgender is “a fashion — how many different kinds of lavatory can you have? And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers.”

As a term and concept, “transgender” is now firmly embedded in common parlance and popular consciousness. In Australia in the last few weeks alone there have been major news stories about transgender footballer Hannah Mouncey; Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s comments regarding “gender whisperers”; and the University of Western Australia cancelling a talk by an anti-transgender US academic.