- Disclaimer
- For practical reasons, I am opposed
- to allowing people to change their genders on official documents like birth certificates (BCs), drivers' licences, etc.
- to people choosing their gender based on identity when playing gender-separated sports, fitness programs, clubs, etc.
- This issue and controversy boils down to accepting one of two premises:
- We are female or male because of our biology (DNA), regardless of our identities.
- We are female or male because of our identities, regardless of our biology (DNA).
If we should find ourselves in a hospital, care to guess which option medical personnel will use to treat us? If you guessed option 1 (DNA), you are correct. Why? Because medical personnel have to deal with reality, not our identity. To do otherwise would be medical malpractice.
- I worked with a guy who, later in life, began openly identifying as female.
However, he previously fathered two children. If he's allowed to change his gender
on his BC, how will that affect his offspring?
- Would they also be required to have their BC changed to reflect two mothers or Parent1 and Parent2?
- Are they expected to no longer address him using male nouns and pronouns -- you know -- like "Dad"? (Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation?)
- If biology (DNA) is not to be the deciding factor for determining gender, then gender no longer has meaning. We can take "Men" and "Women" off the bathrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, etc. We can also do away with gender-separated sports, clubs, activities, etc.
- Is gender identity the only identity not to fall under psychological scrutiny?
- Are we to accept a 40-year-old man who is not only transgendered but also transaged
and identifies as an eight-year-old girl? If we are going to accept the former, why not the latter?
To do otherwise would be cherry picking and non-inclusive. If we're going to be consistent,
he should be allowed to attend grade school, use the girls' bathroom, and expect to be invited to birthday parties and sleepovers. Nothing could possibly go wrong there, right?
- OK if a caucasian identifies as black and demands all the rights and privileges associated
with minority status?
- If someone identfies as the diety Jesus Christ, should the Christian community
be expected to treat him as such?
- Would you get on an airplane if the pilot "identifies" as a pilot
but in reality is not a pilot?
- If you are heterosexual, would you accept someone who is biologically the same
gender as you but "identifies" as the opposite gender as a suitable mate? Call me
any name you want, but I certainly would not. (These social issues tend to look
quite differently when we personalize them.)
See where I'm going with this? Once we open the door to accepting Existence By Identity, the possibilities are limitless.
- Are we to accept a 40-year-old man who is not only transgendered but also transaged
and identifies as an eight-year-old girl? If we are going to accept the former, why not the latter?
To do otherwise would be cherry picking and non-inclusive. If we're going to be consistent,
he should be allowed to attend grade school, use the girls' bathroom, and expect to be invited to birthday parties and sleepovers. Nothing could possibly go wrong there, right?
- I find it troubling that we are supposedly being progressive and inclusive
by allowing biological males who identify as females into womens' safe spaces,
without regard for the impact that is having on the biological females. It's also
concering that some of these transgendered females suddenly discover their maleness
when they find themselves in close quarters with biologcial females. It's called
wanting it both ways.
- I can't imagine how difficult life must be for those with alternate identities.
However, accepting the identities of others is really playing make-believe
and I do not feel obligated, nor should I be compelled, to play along.
I am not, and would resent being labled, a "hater", some type of "phobe"
or creating a "hostile environment" for others because I choose not to accept
their identities, gender or otherwise.
- True compassion is helping our family members, friends, co-workers, etc. dealing with identity issues to accept themselves for whom they really are, rather than the rest of us perpetuating a psychological disorder by pretending to accept them for whom they are not.
legend: BC = birth certificate
Just a couple of "girls" winning at track and wrestling.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Ren'ee Richards (formerly Richard Raskind), perhaps the most famous
transgendered tennis player, played men's college tennis at Yale,
and later played professional women's tennis in the 1970s.
Good idea? You decide.