News anchor misgenders civil rights lawyer at Bernie Sanders townhall; Grace Thomas corrects pronouns

A town hall event on CNN featuring Senator Bernie Sanders took an unexpected turn when anchor Anderson Cooper introduced a civil rights attorney using "incorrect" pronouns.
Cooper said, “I want to introduce Grace Thomas. She is a local civil rights attorney. She is a Democrat, right?”
Thomas politely corrected him, saying, “They/them pronouns, actually. Thank you.” Cooper responded with an “oh”.
Sanders smiled seemingly in affirmation of Thomas as she corrected the anchor.

Thomas further went on to ask Sanders, “Polling and turnout data indicate that men of all racial demographics are turning away from the Democratic Party...”
The senator appeared to listen to the question intently, his face focused but slightly furrowed. Social media users picked up on his expression and joked that he looked confused about the pronoun. “Bernie’s face. He looks so confused,” wrote one user. Others used the moment to criticise the Democrats' stance on gender identity. “Classic identity politics that sent @TheDemocrats off a cliff,” wrote a user.

Sanders himself supports progressive gender views in line with the Democratic Party.
Republicans, especially under Donald Trump’s administration, have taken a rigid stance on gender identity. It also recently introduced a new policy that bars officials from responding to reporters who include gender pronouns in their email signatures.
Also read: 'Against scientific realities': White House to ignore journalists who include gender pronouns in email bi
The administration earlier reinforced a binary definition of gender and directed agencies like Nasa to avoid using pronouns in internal communications.
In contrast, under president Biden, the department of health and human Services (HHS) implemented policies requiring federal employees to respect colleagues’ chosen pronouns—or face disciplinary action, including termination.