In my youth, the reception was always in the church fellowship hall, so it would be hard to exclude anyone who was at the ceremony. But it also meant that costs were contained and the wedding party was not charged "per person."
Why go through the rude process of telling people not to attend? In my youth, the entire town was invited to the wedding but only a select few were invited to the reception. Costs were minimized and everyone was included.
The documentary 'How to Die in Oregon' featured the story of a number of people who were terminally ill, but the audience saw one patient's story more than the others -- a nurse in Portland dying of liver cancer. The voters of Oregon voted in doctor assisted suicide in 1994 and the documentary was one filmmaker's POV on how that law has affected the terminally ill who live there.
Just because someone a few millennia ago decided to throw his weight around and make male the default sex doesn't mean that cannot change. What do testicles have to do with the evolution of language? Do testicles make one person more "correct" than the next?
"They" is so much less awkward than "he or she" or "he/she" and less ridiculous than defaulting to "he" or alternating.
And, let's not forget, there are people who do not identify as either male or female (I am one), and the other options out there for gender-neutral *specific* singular pronouns are universally terrible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_Wars
And, let's not forget, there are people who do not identify as either male or female (I am one), and the other options out there for gender-neutral *specific* singular pronouns are universally terrible.
"They" is fine.