‘Surely you mean sex,’ I told the Vice-Chancellor and the other Deans. It was 30 years ago and I had just questioned the use of the word ‘gender’ in some new policy, as well as the ungrammatical ‘they’. I don’t remember the document, but it could have been something like this: ‘If any student of any gender urinates on the Vice-Chancellor’s lawn, they shall be counselled.