In Spanish we can say “Vino, vio, venció” (… came, … saw, …overcome ), perfectly gender-less.

But it is true that at least the first time we have to declare our subject. In informal communication, forms such as “l@s niñ@s estaban muy content@s” are being used quite often.

And I agree with JJM, we make a clear distinction between gramatical gender of words and the sex of a person.
“Persona” is a feminine word, as they are the predominantly male “Guardia Civil” and the “Armada”.

What did we ever do without Google?

In my own experience, the gender often shifts as you go from the general to the specific: if you’re just discussing “une sentinelle,” you’ll use “elle” but if you know the particular sentry is “Soldat Pierre Tremblay,” you’ll start using “il” in reference to the individual rather than his post.

Examples like this point out the difference between the concept of gender and that of sex. No French speaker would consider a male sentry a “woman” simply because the noun that describes his position is feminine any more than they would consider a table a woman because it is feminine.*

An understandably hard concept for English speakers to grasp as they conflate (grammatical) gender and sex far too readily.

* Similarly of course, no German speaker would consider a girl not to be female in sex because the noun is neuter.