thomascwaters.com

The linked article doesn’t contain a ton of information, and frankly, I’d like to know more, but it is interesting, none the less. The issue of Gender, what is is, and isn’t, and the relationship of Gender, Gender Identity and Expression to the gay and lesbian rights movement is an important subject that we don’t talk about enough. The “T” is there in LGBT (or GLBTQ, or whatever combination you are most fond of using) . yet there are those in the Transexual, Intersex, and Transgender communities who feel it doesn’t belong, or who feel as if, they are still ignored and invisible even though it is listed.

I think that while the LGBT community has included T, few have really taken the time to understand what that is, who is included, and what that means for those who self-identify as Trans, as well as for the rest of the GLBTQ communities. Trans folk “belonged” (and continue to do so, in my opinion) because no sexual minority deserves less than full equality. Trans folk don’t choose to change genders. They choose to accept that their insides don’t match their outsides, and decide to align these to be more whole. Gays and lesbians don’t chose to be gay or lesbian, but they do chose to accept themselves as they are rather than deny their identity.

But what do we really know about Gender? What is it and why is it the way it is? For me, my identity as a man is so tied to my anatomy, that I have no basis for understanding how someone can know that their true gender doesn’t match their identity. I have bought into the status quo idea that gender is anatomy. But this status quo may fall away, just as other concepts and ideas have been replaced over time as we have come to understand the science behind what we see and think we know.

Gender and anatomy are as intertwined as anything with Religion,given that the primary basis of the Jude-Christian creation story is all about Adam and Eve. But just as Religion had to come to terms with the limitations of it’s own lore surrounding astronomy, it will eventually have to come to terms with the shortcomings of it’s creation myth too. Time will tell, if Religion can do that, or if it feels so tightly bound to Adam and Eve that it (Religion) would rather become irrelevant than keep the overall cosmology while reorienting itself with updated ideas about the origin of human life.

No matter how hard Religion fights, we must continue to look towards Science to help understand biology and what we call life generally, as well as gender specifically.

Wow, that got a bit heavier than I was expecting- enjoy the linked article.

Ameriqueer: Mice Prove Gender Isn’t Fixed at Birth – Battle of the sexes rages inside each individual.