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

The word they has always been gender agnostic in the singular form and was used when gender was uncertain. Eg. “A robber broke into the community hall last night. They stole the microwave and $50 dollars cash”.

The current use of ‘they’ to respect people who consider themselves ungendered is just an extension of that.