My Gender Is Bunny

By Ernie Grimm | Published Wednesday, March 25, 2009

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/mar/25/my-gender-bunny/

I'm sitting on a leather couch in the middle of a darkened black-walled, black-ceilinged room talking to a man who, at taxpayer expense, takes hormones to become more like a woman yet is in the middle of an experimental performance in which he seeks to become a dragon.

Micha Cárdenas, the 31-year-old man/woman/ dragon in question, sits in a chair three feet from the couch. He's facing me, but I can't see his eyes due to the stereoscopic headset he's wearing as part of a performance art project called Becoming Dragon. The headset limits Cárdenas's view — except for peripheral vision — to the online world of Second Life, where he's spent every waking moment of the past 11 days living as a dragon named Azdel Slade.

QuoteBut the final nail in his journalistic coffin is this-

"Author's note: Micha Cárdenas asked that feminine pronouns be used in this story. With respect, the author declined."

In this case, Grimm can't even fall back on the excuse of ignorance; his thinly veiled sneering tone throughout the article makes it clear that his choice to ignore the express wishes of the person being covered was made with the specific intention of DISrespecting her.