I've never considered this a complicated decision to English: making a singular, no-gender pronoun official. It seems it is very complicated. It has been on and off for centuries. "They" emerged by the 14th century and was in use then. But it got criticism since the mid-18th century by "prescriptive commentators." There were alternatives proposed, but they didn't land well. There were suggestions of "it" and "which" by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1808. I guess a poet counts as having more expertise. There were some really odd ideas - Thon (the blend of that and one). How about zie? That's a recent one. Looking back, there was a similar resistance to "you" replacing "thou, thee, and thy" in the 1600s. We shouldn't be surprised at resistance in the 20th century and into the 21st where it has become much more nuanced.
This from the oed.com: "In 1794, a contributor to the New Bedford Medley mansplains to three women that the singular they they used in an earlier essay in the newspaper was grammatically incorrect and does no ‘honor to themselves, or the female sex in general.’ To which they honourably reply that they used singular they on purpose because ‘we wished to conceal the gender,’ and they challenge their critic to invent a new pronoun if their politically-charged use of singular they upsets him so much. More recently, a colleague who is otherwise conservative told me that they found singular they useful ‘when talking about what certain people in my field say about other people in my field as a way of concealing the identity of my source.’"
Now we have those who want to identify as not being male or female in the traditional sense. That's what I think is the likely source of controversy now. It's not about concealing gender, but of casting gender descriptions off or aside. The Chief Editor of the OED, Robert Burchfield considers the trend to be irreversible.
Shakespeare didn't have any problems with unspecified or general genders. But remember that was in the 14th century when using they was ok. As in Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3, Scene 4. "God send every one their heart's desire!"
An excellent sentiment.
The heart and the rose come together for this image.
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