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

Using “it” is seen as demeaning– you said yourself that it’s for objects and animals, so using this for a person equates them with one of those.

The singular “they” is gender-neutral and respective of a person’s humanity. IMO it can be slightly confusing because it also refers to a group of people and/or other things, but it’s the best we’ve got for now.