When Esperanto was first introduced, most nouns did not include gender information, but in the male dominated world of 1887 many were often assumed to be male unless the suffix “in” was used to feminize the words. {amiko – friend (gender neutral, male), amikino – friend (female)}
A second group of nouns, also gender neutral, were not normally assumed to be male. As with the first group, the suffix “in” could be added to make the noun female; “vir” could be used as a prefix to make the noun clearly male. {ĉevalo (“ĉ” is pronounced like “ch” in “chair”) – horse (gender neutral), ĉevalino – mare (female horse), virĉevalo – stallion (male horse)}
Finally, a third group of nouns were male in their basic form. The suffix “in” was again used to make the words female. The prefix “ge” was used to make plural words including both sexes, and also to make gender neutral expressions. {patro – father (male parent), patrino – mother (female parent), unu el la gepatroj – parent (literally one of the parents – gender neutral)}
Some people didn’t like the unequal treatment of the sexes, which they said was inappropriate for a future international language.
This led a number of Esperanto speakers to start using a new male suffix “iĉ” (pronounced like the English word “each”). Parallel suffixes are now added to basic nouns all of which are gender neutral. {patro – parent (gender neutral), patriĉo – father (male parent), patrino – mother (female parent); every noun follows the same pattern: amiko, amikiĉo, amikino; ĉevalo ĉevaliĉo ĉevalino; etc.}
The vast majority of people who have already learned Esperanto, learned it before hearing about the new male suffix. Many existing speakers have still never even heard of it. Many who do hear of it, who are already used to the original forms, don’t want to change.
Some people are teaching the new suffix with equal treatment of the sexes, others are teaching the original forms. Again, obviously, it would be better if we were all teaching the same way.
If you were on the committee to decide which should be taught, would you vote “For” or “Against” the new male suffix?

For new male suffix Against new suffix

Here are some of the arguments:

For
An international language should treat the sexes equally. The original unequal treatment of the sexes is an injustice.
Against
The language works fine in its original form. The different treatment is simply a different treatment, not an injustice.
For
The number of people using the new suffix is growing and they won’t quit. The only way to unify the movement is to use the new suffix.
Against
Only a very small percentage of the existing Esperanto speakers are using the new suffix. There is no unity problem.
For
Other languages are evolving in the direction of equality and Esperanto ultimately will as well, continuing to teach the old forms will only delay the inevitable.
Against
A few languages are evolving this way, many more are not. Those that are evolving do so by introducing new words, not redefining important existing basic words.
For
The new suffix is a minor inconvenience to a small number of pioneers. The many millions of future speakers will appreciate the justice and obvious logic of the parallel suffixes.
Against
The proposed change will result in confusion and misunderstandings. Almost all existing Esperanto literature was written without the proposed new male suffix.
For
Start teaching the new suffix now and it will soon become standard.
Against
Keep teaching the language in its original and much more commonly used form.