A challenge – can you use anything but the singular “they.”
Excuse me for writing about sex, but I think I have found a sentence in which the singular they is necessary.
A good friend has written several popular books on senior sex, and on her blog she attached the answer a newspaper advisor gave to a reader whose wife had Alzheimer’s Disease and no longer wanted sex.
The advisor wrote back at length, explaining that he didn’t want to guess any of the reader’s beliefs or habits, then gave him a lengthy list of possibilities, including, in the last paragraph, using a “sex worker.” He didn’t want to assume the sort of sex worker the reader might desire, including the gender, so he wrote the following sentence: “You need to find a good sex worker, one who is professional and cares about their work.”
If he says “his or her,” he may grievously offend his reader for even suggesting he might desire a same-sex worker; on the other hand, if the reader DOES want a same-sex worker, the reader would toss away the advisor’s answer as useless. The advisor cannot use “one’s.” I cannot think of any other word he could use, other than “they,” but may be suffering from a lack of imagination.
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