I think gender is a huge part of our identity, and that no one should have to nix "he" or "she". It really is important for children to grow up knowing which gender they are, and the differences between each - it's the early stages of sex education, in my opinion. There'll be a lot of awkward anatomy questions otherwise.

I don't know how it promotes equality either. It's all well and good calling each other a person, but every person you meet looks/sounds/smells different. Someone will still be the last person picked for a team at football.