Two weeks ago, our school made a simple request for us. That ended up becoming a national news story, one that led to extreme reactions. That request was to call people by the preferred name and pronouns that they want to go by.

Now, this is not a particularly difficult concept. If someone says that their name is Jill, then their name is Jill. Their name is not anything else. If someone says that she would like to be referred to as “she” then it is not very difficult to refer to them as “she.”

This request has been, seemingly deliberately, misconstrued by pundits and outlets to create outrage, something that they thrive off of. Very few of these stories have taken the effort to talk to Point Park students, much less transgender and non-binary students these kinds of policies are intended to protect. What has happened with this email, a simple reminder of policies dating back to 2014, is what happens every time some sort of major controversy happens. Someone seeking attention blows a story up on social media, and then pundits fan the flames of ignorance into bigotry.

Pundits like Laura Ingraham suggested that students at Point Park should stand up and say “this is dumb.” Most rational people with an understanding of how pronouns work do not think “this is dumb” they think “this is a really easy request of me, and I am going to follow it.”

When talking about this situation on his panel show, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld referred to the concept of an office for Equity and Inclusion as “scary.” What exactly is “scary” about working to minimize discrimination on campus? What exactly is “scary” about working to minimize harassment on campus? And most importantly: what exactly is “scary” about people working to actively try to make our university a kinder and better place?

Outlets tried to paint Point Park as a place where possible administrative action (which would usually only happen in the cases of repeated offenses) was indicative of a pervasive tattling culture that would censor all free speech. The majority of students on campus, however, know that most complaints about campus go unnoticed by higher authorities and thus do not receive a response. And while there may be a part of the student body that feels inconvenienced, another group of students feels unsafe at times—not because of a particular chosen ideology but because of hostility or indifference to who they are.

At the end of the day, none of this frenzy online matters. Like most controversies of this nature, it will blow over in a few weeks and everyone will forget about it. The people hurt here the most are members of the transgender community who have to deal with the continued ignorance that is unfortunately relatively widespread. So we make this simple request of you, Pioneers: respect your peers.