Harrop: How about ‘gentlefolk, watch your personal belongings’

The reasoning goes that some riders, such as transgender individuals, identify with a gender other than the one they were born with. These people deserve respect and accommodation. But they still generally identify with a gender. (I know I’m embracing the “gender binary” classification.)

So I see no reason they should feel excluded in an appeal to ladies and gentlemen. Others could just shrug it off, knowing that they face far more serious challenges than this one.

In any case, “ladies and gentlemen” is an aspirational address. It is offered in the hope that the less mannerly males and females riding the trains would elevate their behavior. Otherwise, conductors could use the New Jersey-inspired “youse guys,” which actually applies to all genders — something like, but less genteel than, the Southern “y’all.”

For instance: “Listen up, youse guys, and let the damn passengers off the train before you shove your way in.”

I clearly like the old-fashioned formality of “ladies and gentlemen.” It sounds especially right this time of year, when “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” one of the loveliest Christmas carols, plays in elevators, in department stores and on subway platforms, courtesy of the buskers.

Years hence, I may see the error of my ways in defending “ladies and gentlemen.” But for now, I stand pat.

Not that anyone is asking me. The new subway guidelines call for replacing “ladies and gentlemen” with the utilitarian terms “passengers” and “riders.”

Passengers would also include the nonhumans frequently found taking a ride. Last summer, there was a duck on a leash. And someone videoed a raccoon taking up a seat, eating calmly out of a bowl.

I see a middle road. Instead of “ladies and gentlemen” or the impersonal “riders,” let’s refer to the passengers as “gentlefolk.” The word “folk” makes no gender distinctions. It just applies to well-behaved human beings.