It’s pretty frustrating for me. Here I am, solving all of the problems of the world, and yet no one is listening to me ! Take the issue of gender liberation ~ all questions of transgender issues stem from one fundamental problem ~ the attitude that everyone must be either “male” or “female.” I settled this whole issue seven years ago (Felix Polydactyl Meander, 2015). The attitude that every peg has to fit into either a square hole or a round hole, even if you have to chip away at that peg to make it fit, seems to me to violate the whole spirit of liberation. I want to celebrate individual diversity, the right of everyone to manifest themselves in any way they wish, without regard to any preconceived notions of the way things have to be.
Things don’t have to be black or white, one way or the other. When I was young and I protested against eating meat, my mother said, “All right ~ if you want to be a vegetarian, you have to be a complete vegetarian ~ never eating any meat at all.” But that wasn’t me ~ I didn’t like eating red meat all the time, with every meal, but once in a while I might want to eat a piece of chicken or fish, and I have always loved cheese.
And then there were those who claimed that “bisexual” was just a euphemism for “gay.” As if you had to be either “straight” or “gay” ~ no in-between waffling allowed ! In the same way, I think a whole continuum should be recognized between “male” and “female.” If your little boy doesn’t feel like a boy, and he would rather play with dolls and bake bread than play war games with the boys, he doesn’t have to turn himself into a girl in all ways ~ he can express his gender choices in whatever way feels good to him/her/one.
I can understand the objection to someone with a boy’s body saying he’s really a girl and he wants to play on the girls’ sports team. Perhaps we should recognize a whole middle ground for in-between genders. A person with a boy’s body who considers himself a girl might play on the same team with tough, butch girls who like to pee standing up. But please don’t force children (or adults) into having to make a choice between only two alternatives. The world is full of diversity, and two gender choices are just not enough.
Then there is the foolish alphabet soup of naming LGBTQNBO (~ non-binary, and other). I suggest that a single title should suffice to cover all non-standard-paradigm gender choices. “Queer” covers the whole territory. “Queer” means “different,” something other than the standard binary paradigm. That already includes everyone who does not or cannot identify as being on one side or the other of the binary fence. Celebrate diversity. I am queer and proud.
