No, I'm afraid you really are stuck in a culture war. As the above poster said, "they" truly has been a gender-neutral singular or plural pronoun for hundreds of years.
For example, someone two blocks down the street is doing something weird. "What are they doing?" is a perfectly grammatically normal reaction to seeing this.
For example, someone two blocks down the street is doing something weird. "What are they doing?" is a perfectly grammatically normal reaction to seeing this.