How a T. Rex Named SUE Became a Nonbinary Icon

There are many ways to describe SUE, the dark brown, 40-foot-long, 250-bone Tyrannosaurus rex fossil housed at the Field Museum in Chicago, enjoying pride of place as the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. rex fossil ever discovered: Twitter personality, outstanding specimen, “all-caps name-haver,” Jeff Goldblum enthusiast, and murderbird (a fan favorite). And, recently, SUE’s friends at the Field Museum of Chicago, added another descriptor: they/them. That’s right, folks: SUE uses gender-neutral pronouns.

In a world where cars are female, God is (largely considered to be) male, and other ridiculous binary gendering of objects, animals, and entities exists, having a dinosaur fossil use gender-neutral pronouns is unexpected, and that’s plain exciting to those of us who live outside our society’s gender-binary obsession.

But how did SUE come to be found and come out as nonbinary? Well, it’s quite the tale.

Finding SUE

In August 1990, amateur paleontologist Sue Hendrickson and her colleagues were preparing to leave the dig site where they had spent the summer in the South Dakota Badlands. Two days before they were set to leave, one of their trucks got a flat tire. While Hendrickson’s colleagues were fixing the tire, she took her dog, Gypsy, on a walk to see a cliff she had yet to explore near their site located on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

As Hendrickson scoured the ground, she noticed what seemed to be bones and looked up. “There, about eight feet above my head, were three dinosaur backbones. I could see them clearly in the sunlight, as though [they were] waiting patiently for someone to find them,” said Hendrickson on her website. It took Hendrickson and her colleagues five days to remove the 30 feet of stone surrounding the fossil and a total of almost three weeks to extract the fossil entirely.

Since 1874, when the first Tyrannosaurus rex teeth were discovered, only a handful of skeletons that are more than half complete have been found. SUE was discovered 90 percent complete by bulk, including with their gastralia, the riblike bones that likely helped with their breathing, which are a rare discovery.

A dramatic, several-year-long legal dispute about the ownership of the fossil followed. The institute with which Hendrickson was working, the rancher whose land was being used, and the Sioux tribe that had claim to the land each believed the fossil belonged to them. In 1997, it was determined that the rancher, Maurice Williams, was the rightful owner. The Field Museum purchased the fossil at auction for $8.36 million later that year.

Along the way, the fossil received the nickname SUE in honor of Hendrickson, and with it she/her pronouns. For the subsequent 20 years, SUE was gendered as female and treated as such.

Coming Out

Coming out hasn’t been a straight path for SUE. In March 2017, SUE got into a conversation with some of their over 37,000 Twitter followers about their gender. SUE’s Twitter feed is filled with bizarre pop culture references and interesting scientific facts, so talking about the scientific basis, or lack thereof, for their gender wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. The conversation came up organically. A fan referred to SUE as her girlfriend in a tweet and SUE replied, “Um, science is still out on that ‘girl’ title...but I'm still your friend.” A follower asked what their pronouns were and SUE replied, clarifying that they use gender-neutral pronouns.

When it became clear that there was still confusion about their pronouns and that there was no scientific basis for gendering SUE as female, the Field Museum staff realized the feminine pronouns being used didn’t make sense and decided to publicly proclaim SUE’s pronouns.

“It’s fairly simple to make this change on Twitter. It only takes a few keystrokes,” said Kate Golembiewski, public relations and science communications manager for the Field Museum. “It’s a little more difficult to make those changes on permanent exhibit displays.”

The museum knew some big changes were coming for SUE in the near future and decided to wait to update its signage until the other changes were under way. In the meantime, the reception on Twitter was positive, and museum patrons started posting photos of themselves with SUE with captions like, “One last selfie with my favourite Dinosaur and Enby icon @SUEthetrex.”

Around six months later, the museum announced that SUE would be moving locations from the large hall where they were displayed to a more appropriately sized suite that would give “SUE the proper context and presentation that such an incredible scientific specimen is worthy of.” The move would also allow for some changes to SUE’s display position and integration of their gastralia. In the press release announcing these changes, she/her pronouns were used in reference to SUE.

SUE’s fans were understandably saddened and confused. One fan, Resa, actually contacted the museum through a form on its website. They were concerned about the inconsistency of the pronouns being used for SUE and thought it was their responsibility as a person with privilege to speak up. “I think it’s really important to represent people who use non-gender-conforming pronouns,” said Resa. Misgendering SUE didn’t just misrepresent the dinosaur, it risked invalidating the credibility SUE’s pronouns had given to nonbinary individuals. “It’s so difficult to push back against people who cloak their anti-trans sentiment in intellectualism,” Resa said, “so having the consistency in just talking about a pseudoimaginary majestic murderbird’s pronouns gives me another piece of data that I can hold up to those people.”

The museum and its staff took the feedback seriously. SUE released a new press release, this time in their own voice, where they talked about their upcoming changes and their use of they/them pronouns. They even gave readers an example of how to use their pronouns correctly. “As in, ‘SUE is a T. rex. They are a majestic murderbird, and Chicago is lucky they grace the city with their presence,’” the release stated.

Getting the (right) words out

While much of the reception externally of SUE’s gender-neutral pronoun use has been positive, there has also been some confusion. On Facebook, fans of SUE asked if the use of “they/them” meant that SUE was actually a composite fossil, like many other T. rex fossils. Other fans chimed in and “very kindly and gently” explained about the singular use of “they/them” and nonbinary identity, said Golembiewski. In her opinion, this was one of the great examples of the kind of community that SUE has attracted.

Internally, the reception has been similar. Many members of the museum staff have been excited and wanted to embrace the change in unanticipated ways. “Some staff asked if they could start listing their pronouns in their professional signature and wondered how they could do so,” said Golembiewski. For those who were less aware of nonbinary identities, it has been a confusing shift, but Golembiewski and her team have welcomed questions and conversation, seeing each as an opportunity to share more about SUE.

Some staff have asked why the museum didn’t shift from using feminine pronouns to referring to SUE as “it” since they are a specimen. “SUE has a personality that the Museum has established over the decades,” said Golembiewski. “It would be too impersonal to use ‘it.’” Sue isn’t just a specimen. They are funny, Jeff Goldblum–obsessed, and an ambassador for science. “Using ‘they/them’ pronouns invites others into the museum and into science.”

For those who have a more grammatical critique of the singular use of ‘they/them’, they will find a worthy conversational partner in Golembiewski, who relishes grammar questions. “Language is fluid,” said Golembiewski. “We’re not running around using ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ anymore, and even Chaucer used the singular ‘they’ in ‘The Pardoner’s Tale.’”

And, for those who feel the singular they is just plain awkward, Golembiewski reminds them that they already use it all the time. “Just think of how we say, ‘Somebody left their phone on the table.’”

Since late February, staff have been instructed to use “they/them” when referring to SUE. The museum released a short question-and-answer document for staff about why SUE uses “they” and also offered a training with Katie Slivovsky, who works for the Chicago Children’s Museum and founded CAMP, the Chicago Alliance for Museums with Pride.

On March 1, Slivovsky offered a workshop at the Field Museum to any staff member who was interested in learning more about SUE and their pronouns. Thirty-five people were in attendance. “The museum had already decided that they were going to use these nonbinary pronouns and they were getting a lot of questions from people who didn’t quite understand the reasoning behind it all,” Slivovsky said. “The purpose of the training was to round out people’s understanding of why it was important and the statement [the museum] made to go nonbinary with SUE the dinosaur.”

Participants engaged in a series of exercises and conversations geared at helping them understand the importance, develop comfort with using gender-neutral pronouns, and create empathy for nonbinary colleagues and patrons. “SUE was a symbol,” said Slivovsky, “But building that understanding for the actual humans sitting next to us and walking through the museum doors, that was the greater point.”

In one exercise, staff members were told they would be given either a green or a blue placard and that they would then silently have to group together by color. Several of them were secretly given teal and orange placards and were left hovering in the middle or standing off to the side. One participant reported feeling “panicky” when he didn’t know where to go. Slivovsky used this moment to connect to how nonbinary individuals feel when we are forced to choose between only two polarized options. As the greater implications of this simple exercise dawned on the participants, Slivovsky could tell how meaningful the workshop was.

“Obviously, in the case of a dinosaur, you’re not hurting anyone’s feelings, but when it comes to your visitors and your coworkers, that’s exactly what’s happening. And that’s putting it mildly,” said Slivovsky. “Feeling invisible is really the deeper problem. We don’t want people to feel unseen, unheard. That’s why it’s so important to respect the name and pronoun people tell you to use.”

The training also covered how to respond to complaints about SUE’s pronouns. “At the Children’s Museum, we handle a complaint about our rainbow sign or all gender bathroom sign the same way we handle somebody who doesn’t like that they can’t bring a balloon into the museum,” said Slivovsky. “There’s no need for debate or agreement or disagreement by any staff. [Gender-neutral pronouns are] just museum policy. We want everyone to feel welcome here.”

Slivovsky hopes that participants will walk away with “a greater motivation to use the names and pronouns people want to be referred to by and a greater comfort and ease with using that.” She doesn’t want participants to wait until they’re comfortable, though — she wants them to start now. “Even though it doesn’t make sense to you, you can still use the name and pronoun somebody wants you to use.”

The new normal

SUE is on the move and that means that they are no longer in the Stanley Field Hall where they have resided since first being on display. The sign that updates museum patrons on SUE’s big changes uses their correct pronouns, and that’s only the beginning. In their new suite, all the signage will be updated to use gender-neutral pronouns, and docents will continue to be trained on fielding questions about the use of “they/them” in reference to SUE.

While there may still be some bumps and mistakes along the way, ultimately the museum has the most compelling reason for sticking by SUE’s pronouns: science. “We don’t know what gender SUE is. There’s quite a bit of robust debate among paleontologists,” said Field Museum president Richard Lariviere. “Our paleontologists aren’t convinced either way.”

Morph Borch, a longtime SUE fan and genderqueer and nonbinary person, echoed Lariviere’s statement. “We’re coming to a point where there are members of the scientific community who are corroborating everybody’s exploration into gender and gender identity,” said Borch. “It’s archaic to try to apply a gender to a skeleton which has no expression of gender dimorphism.”

The timing to bring their pronouns into alignment with what we know about SUE couldn’t be better. Along with the addition of their gastralia, the repositioning of their arms and wishbone, and their move to a suite that will better feature their size, SUE is finally getting the pronouns that accurately describe them. Making the changes together puts the focus on being more scientifically accurate and inclusive.

“Science is for everyone,” said Golembiewski. “If [using gender-neutral pronouns] makes one person more comfortable in our museum, if it helps people get more accustomed to using they and them pronouns, then it’s worth it.” In the end, she hopes SUE’s pronouns will create space for more people to see themselves in science.

S.E. Fleenor writes novels and articles centering on intersectional feminism, pop culture, and literature, and has appeared in several publications, including Vice, SyFyWire, The Denver VOICE, and Class Lives: Stories from Across the Economic Divide.

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