News and Events => Opinions & Editorials => Topic started by: Shana A on January 13, 2012, 09:25:52 AM Return to Full Version
Title: Trans 101: A Primer for the Ignorant and the Intolerant
Post by: Shana A on January 13, 2012, 09:25:52 AM
Post by: Shana A on January 13, 2012, 09:25:52 AM
Valerie Keefe
Writer, activist, candidate, unpaid political consultant, service-sector prole, and general nuisance
Trans 101: A Primer for the Ignorant and the Intolerant
Posted: 1/13/12 07:24 AM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-keefe/trans-101_b_1198674.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-keefe/trans-101_b_1198674.html)
I hate to go back to Trans 101 material after earlier having been able to use words as complicated as "cissexist" without any explanation, but in light of the recent bill introduced in Tennessee that would make it a crime for trans people to use the washroom that matches their identified sex, I thought I would offer a bit of a refresher for the people who've been spilling a lot of ink, pixels, and vitriol on the issue. I want there to be no doubt as to what I'm talking about among people who don't know better or don't want to know better.
So, when a person is born, there's usually a declared sex for the child, based on a cursory inspection of genitalia. Sometimes the genitalia are ambiguous, and sex is often decided in those cases by the parents and/or doctors, based on an educated guess. (And that has a long history of not working out too well...) Those whose identified sex and declared-at-birth (or "assigned," as is common parlance in trans activist circles) sex match are cissexual. Those whose identified sex and declared-at-birth sex don't match are transsexual. To be called cissexual is no more offensive than being called heterosexual; surely we can agree on that much. This is simple, non-normative terminology that describes accord or discord with assigned sex, without legitimizing or delegitimizing either point of view.
Writer, activist, candidate, unpaid political consultant, service-sector prole, and general nuisance
Trans 101: A Primer for the Ignorant and the Intolerant
Posted: 1/13/12 07:24 AM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-keefe/trans-101_b_1198674.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-keefe/trans-101_b_1198674.html)
I hate to go back to Trans 101 material after earlier having been able to use words as complicated as "cissexist" without any explanation, but in light of the recent bill introduced in Tennessee that would make it a crime for trans people to use the washroom that matches their identified sex, I thought I would offer a bit of a refresher for the people who've been spilling a lot of ink, pixels, and vitriol on the issue. I want there to be no doubt as to what I'm talking about among people who don't know better or don't want to know better.
So, when a person is born, there's usually a declared sex for the child, based on a cursory inspection of genitalia. Sometimes the genitalia are ambiguous, and sex is often decided in those cases by the parents and/or doctors, based on an educated guess. (And that has a long history of not working out too well...) Those whose identified sex and declared-at-birth (or "assigned," as is common parlance in trans activist circles) sex match are cissexual. Those whose identified sex and declared-at-birth sex don't match are transsexual. To be called cissexual is no more offensive than being called heterosexual; surely we can agree on that much. This is simple, non-normative terminology that describes accord or discord with assigned sex, without legitimizing or delegitimizing either point of view.