Eli5: Why do you use “they” for non-gendered speech instead of “it”?

Question

I’m not a native speaker, but as far as I understood, for singular objects and animals “it” was used. Why use “they” for individual people then?

In: 1400

Answer 1

“It” generally refers to something inanimate or, at least, a lower form of life (animals, bugs, etc).

In the last few decades “it” was used (somewhat derisively) to refer to crossdressers/trans people but, due to the association with “less than human,” that mostly fell out of favor.

As a rule, if you’d say “something” it’s an “it.” If you’d say “someone” it’s a “they.” Advanced Level: Of course, here, when I said “it’s” it wasn’t referring to the “someone” it was referring to “the word” which is an elided subject. English is hell.