by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
A competent therapist (i.e. not one who was schooled in the wonders of "conversion therapy") will explain that the determination of gender is not a simple matter. Most will argue that gender is a fluid concept that flows along a continuum with John Wayne holding a rifle at one end and June Cleaver in pearls and heels with dinner on the table at the other. The line, however, is not as simple as that. Most of the people of the world fall someplace in the middle with certain degrees of physical trappings of one gender as well as emotional and psychological markers that are strung along the continuum and may not be as clear-cut.
Bob may workout at the gym, pack a pistol, and be a poster boy for maleness, yet he gets a deep satisfaction out of cleaning house and cooking, two activities historically associated with women. Carol may have given birth to three children, yet she would much rather be out cutting wood than fixing their lunches.
Most people who study gender issues, in fact, tend to believe that gender is not a binary option, a simple check mark in a "male" or "female" column. It is far more complicated than that.
Today over 1.4 million Americans openly identify as a gender that differs from the one into which they were born.
Title IX is the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive financial assistance from the government. Conservatives have generally opposed Title IX since its inception, fearing that it would force girls to play football or cause student athletes to have to share locker rooms based on some non-specific gender basis. Then, during the Obama years, Title IX protections were extended to include a wider range of genders including individuals who regarded themselves as gay, lesbian, or transgender. That brought about rage from conservative quarters, particularly with regard to locker rooms and bathrooms.
The Trump administration sees election gold in America's struggle with gender diversity. Evangelical Christians, people not generally known for their tolerance, have long pined for a return to the world where men were men and women were glad of it. In their cloistered view of the world you are born into a specific gender - as determined by your physical genitalia at the time of birth - and so shall you remain - forever and ever - amen. And now the Trump administration seems determined to adopt that narrow point-of-view as the law of the land.
Title IX is enforced in part by four federal departments: Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor. Currently the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, one which they hope clarifies who the law is intended to cover, while, at the same time, gives a victory to Christian fundamentalists who are still smarting over the notion that the world is round. HHS has issued a memo which says: "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth."
Trump and his half-baked Christians are seeking to eliminate America's transgender population with the simple stroke of a pen.
Kaitlyn Jenner welcome back to the world of Bruce. Your buddy Trump is coming for your identity, and he aims to take your soul, as well.
And just for the record, there is no such thing as absolute maleness or femaleness. John Wayne spent much of his life in make-up pretending to be other people, and June Cleaver may have been the ideal wife, but many American husbands still prowled around at night looking for qualities that poor June did not exude.
Gender is complicated. Sadly, the Trump administration is not.
The Trump administration sees election gold in America's struggle with gender diversity. Evangelical Christians, people not generally known for their tolerance, have long pined for a return to the world where men were men and women were glad of it. In their cloistered view of the world you are born into a specific gender - as determined by your physical genitalia at the time of birth - and so shall you remain - forever and ever - amen. And now the Trump administration seems determined to adopt that narrow point-of-view as the law of the land.
Title IX is enforced in part by four federal departments: Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor. Currently the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, one which they hope clarifies who the law is intended to cover, while, at the same time, gives a victory to Christian fundamentalists who are still smarting over the notion that the world is round. HHS has issued a memo which says: "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth."
Trump and his half-baked Christians are seeking to eliminate America's transgender population with the simple stroke of a pen.
Kaitlyn Jenner welcome back to the world of Bruce. Your buddy Trump is coming for your identity, and he aims to take your soul, as well.
And just for the record, there is no such thing as absolute maleness or femaleness. John Wayne spent much of his life in make-up pretending to be other people, and June Cleaver may have been the ideal wife, but many American husbands still prowled around at night looking for qualities that poor June did not exude.
Gender is complicated. Sadly, the Trump administration is not.
1 comment:
It appears that who agree with the conception of Trump's troglodytic perception of gender identification thin also that the decisions to vary from the norm are frivolous, outlandish, and ill considered. Nothing could be further from the truth.
One cannot simply go to a surgeon and get a sex change on demand. That is simply not the case. In 1926 a boy was born in the Bronx, New York. In time the young "man" graduated from high school and was drafted into the Army for World War II. Then in 1951 he traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark where eventually she was permitted to have a sex reassignment surgery. Her name was Christine Jorgensen.
Although I was an infant when Jorgensen received her surgery I recall her name being used derisively in a culture that was openly hostile to anyone who was other. Other that being a straight, white, cultural conforming person was a societal sin. That sin ignored wife beaters, adulterers, racists, and maladroitness in general.
In the 1970's I found myself working in the surgical units of several hospitals. In one I discovered that the physicians were working with patients who sought sex reassignment surgery. When they exhausted their instructions and counseling, and only then, would the doctors refer the patient to a hospital and a team of surgeons in another city for the operation. Sex reassignment surgery can't be undone and is never performed on a whim.
In the 1980's I had the occasion to observe a person undergoing the process for a sex reassignment surgery. To say she was treated rudely does not say enough about the mountains of invidious treatment she endured. She was angry having grown to expect that she was going to be denigrated and insulted by everyone. That culture of being openly hostile to anyone who is other was thriving at the law school I attended by many of my fellow classmates.
It is not okay to ridicule other persons. Neither is it okay for this Administration to turn back the clock and reimpose its cave dwelling fears on an America. Trump cannot make pristine by eliminating the other.
Post a Comment