Too Many Labels

I had a discussion with my wife about what we call a person who identifies with their birth sex.  It is cisgender.  Its not that easy to keep track of and the following link is helpful.

gender identifier terms

Not too  long ago we just used men, women, boys, girls.

While respecting the rights of people to identify however they want there are things in the terminology that are a bit odd.  In a lot of it they talk about the sex assigned at birth.  Since I'm pretty sure they are not talking about God this is obviously the sex that would be indicated by the eternal genitalia they possess at birth.  At least I'm not aware that we are assigning sex at that time on any other basis.

I guess in some instances, certain parents decide not to assign a sex at that time.

Still, there is still a big trend about having sex reveal parties also going on.

I have to say that I sometimes think we have created a situation in which many people are almost encouraged to have sexual identity anxiety.

There have always been those who felt uncomfortable in the sex they were born into.  Sometimes this was expressed as a sexual desire for the same sex and other times it was related to a desire to act like the other sex.

For most of human history these types of behavior were considered unnatural or even sinful, something that needed to be hidden and something that could lead to punishment.  Hopefully we now allow people to be who they are, although I'm sure there is still some discrimination.

Still for those who, and this is the great majority of people I know, having a label for identifying as the sex I was born with seems a bit too much.  I'm also not sure that having to broadcast whether I am who I am or if I am now someone else is helpful to treating everyone the way they currently identify.

Legal Discrimination?

Sometimes you see something that just makes you wonder.

There is apparently a proposal circulating in administration to define sex as what is on your original birth certificate.

This will essentially deny transgender and others who redefine their gender identities of certain rights and protections.

I gather this is to appease certain Evangelical sects that find this conflicts with the bible, which for them is fine, but we are not supposed to have a national religion.

I honestly will admit the current status of gender identity isn't something I really understand except to believe based on current knowledge that the individuals face significant challenges in their lives already.

However the idea of subjecting them to discrimination for political purposes is just unacceptable.

Those who argue that treating them as the gender they identify as conflicts with the "natural order of things" or subjects "normal" children and people to inappropriate situations.

That natural order of things has been used to justify so many practices, such as slavery, or sexual abuse that we now know are not the "natural order" of things.  Other things like bisexuality are in fact part of the natural order of things, but not the only part.

I haven't seen any evidence that people with gender issues are causing problems for others.  They are historically the ones who have been the victims because they are different.

To take a step back and subject them to legal issues related to their natural lifestyle is opening the door to other abuses by the Government.

Lets hope it doesn't happen.