I'd like to clarify that I am after all a speaker of a language that has gender-specific word categories (I am not entirely sure what the proper grammatical terms for these are in English, and too tired to look them up, sorry.) As in, we have three genders in my native language, and therefore it is not considered dehumanizing to use the word "it" when speaking of/about a gender neutral noun, unless you emphasize the word in such a way that it sounds demeaning. For example the word for child is gender neutral in my language, and therefore we often ask, for example, "Do you know what gender it is?" when asking an expecting mother or father.
I often forget that this does not work very well in English.
But, I do agree with Bronx that Ne/Ner could be an easily understood term within the story, and it could also fit better, as an established term in that society. And I'm rambling… I should go to bed Don't mind me, sorry