An unstoppable impulse is about to sweep away traditional ideas of gender – and we'll all benefit.
Jane Fae
The Guardian, Friday 30 May 2014
Trans people remain discriminated against at work, in housing and in education. A simple night out on the town still carries dangers that the equivalent non-trans expedition would not. Same-sex marriage, which our political masters proclaimed as "equal", is anything but – with two enormous loopholes written into recent English legislation "because trans is different". Transgender people suffer shameful, humiliating and sometimes downright negligent encounters with medical professionals, while the authorities continue to wage war on those who provide a trans-friendly medical service.
Yet change is coming. The trans community is self-aware and out, and campaigning in a way unthinkable a decade ago. We are now recognised as a legitimate focus for minority protection. And far more important, we are beginning to take back control of our destiny and our definition from others who have little empathy or understanding of us: from the medics, the religious, and those radical feminists who all claim to know our natures far better than we do.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/tipping-point-transgender-equality
Not sure I like the article. I'm uncomfortable tying the rights of trans people to opening up a "wider debate" about gender. It perpetuates the misconception that trans people are trying take people's gender away from them. Speaking for myself, nothing is further from what I want. I only want to be recognized as my identified gender, and not face harassment or discrimination for it.
I don't want to make it any less socially acceptable for people to express their genders the way they do. I don't want to force people away from their single-gender spaces if that's where they want to be. I don't want to force people to use bathroom facilities that they are not comfortable with.
I respect people who are making the argument that our society needs to change the way it relates to gender. Maybe they're right. Maybe not. But I feel it hurts our cause when they tie their cause to it.
I'm inclined to agree with Suzi about the Guardian article but am curious to see this Time article http://time.com/magazine/ (http://time.com/magazine/) starring Laverne Cox but apparently addressing transgender issues in general.
Going back to Suzi's comments, in France where many of the "tenors" of the TG community militate for the total abolition of gender, I have seen first hand just how inaudible the message is. Like it or not, I think most people on the planet are extremely attached to the notion of gender and that it is only people who are seriously conflicted about their own gender that give any serious thought to the subject. What belonging to one or the other gender means in terms of rights is a totally different question and since the cause of women's rights have progressed so much over the last 50 years and will no doubt continue to do as women's advantages in terms of educational achievement continue to make an impact, I even believe the notion of gender could become less of an issue for the vast majority of people.
So, while I am personally all for us coming out of the closet and pushing for our absolute right to live in the gender we identify with independently of our biological sex, I'm inclined to steer very clear of any suggestion that I'm for the abolition of gender per se.
As it happens, my experience of transitioning, especially the psychological effects of HRT, also convince me more than ever that there is a biological basis for some of the differences in behaviour corresponding to male and female stereotypes. My own behavioural changes, in terms of lowered aggressivity and far more emotivity have taken even me by surprise...