The author is a they?

I want to be clear about the intent of this post. I am commenting only about the English language, nothing else. I am not including labels for this post, such as CNN or any label related to politics. I am laser-focused on the use of language in this post.

I noticed this article on CNN.com:

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https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/11/opinions/nhl-pride-tape-ban-coming-out-day-de-la-cretaz/index.html

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so I started to read the article. I read the "Editor's Notes" for the article above:

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Editor’s Note: Frankie de la Cretaz is an independent journalist whose writing sits at the intersection of sports and gender. They are the co-author of “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League,” and their work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated and other publications. The opinions expressed in this article are their own.

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and was confused. 

Why? 

I am quoting the text above when I write "Frankie is (emphasis mine) an independent..." is how the sentence begins. The second sentence begins "They are" which is confusing because the first sentence begain with "Frankie is." I don't have a problem with "Frankie is" because is happens to be a singular verb, used when referring to one person. If I had used "is" in an elementary school, junior high, high school, or college piece of writing in the following sentences - Sally is happy. They are going to be recognized at the school assembly today" every single peer, teacher and professor would have read my words and circled "they are" and commented that I should have used the words "she is going to be" instead of "they are going to be" in my writing. I don't understand how we can continue to communicate with each other when there is not a common language. Honestly, I don't know if the Editor's Note is a typo or intentional. I've been told that I should not presume the pronouns of someone and, in fact, many emails that enter my Inbox in Outlook will include pronouns in the email signature. For the record, I do not.

What is my point? Simply that I fear that there will be a day when editors will not know how to edit if "they are" can refer to both Frankie, a singular subject, and also the collective subject that refers to multiple people. For example, "Jimmy Uso is a professional wrestler. They are part of a faction called The Bloodline." How would an editor know if that second sentence should be "He is part of a faction called The Bloodline" - it can't be determined upon a whim, that sometimes "they are" is correct and sometimes "they are" is incorrect.

For more information about the verb "to be", refer to https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/how-do-you-use-the-verb-be-in-english.