Post by davina on May 18, 2006 15:27:42 GMT 1
Nothing is fixed, not even rules and especially the unwritten ones.
Once upon a time you could be locked away in a mental institution for being gay. Nowadays (in the UK at least) gays can have civil partnerships akin to marriage. People are more comfortable with the idea of same sex partners these days; two men or two women, afterall they are still men and women just loving someone of the same sex. They can check the box for male or female on an application form. They fit the rule: Male or Female.
So what of the transgendered? A girl dresses like a boy, she must be a tomboy. A boy dresses as a girl, he must be gay. Yes thats what people think. They can't get past the fact that there could be some other state of being that is not just male or female.
And so, those of us who feel we are not wholly male or wholly female must decide which side of the fence we want to be on and undergo surgery to align ourselves to society rules, or go into hiding and lead secret lives lest we face ridicule.
Society needs to understand, to be educated that not everything is black and white; that its OK to feel different from the sex that you were born, to dress as you feel, and to express yourself as you feel; to be the person you were born. Then we can say: 'Society Rules OK!'
Once upon a time you could be locked away in a mental institution for being gay. Nowadays (in the UK at least) gays can have civil partnerships akin to marriage. People are more comfortable with the idea of same sex partners these days; two men or two women, afterall they are still men and women just loving someone of the same sex. They can check the box for male or female on an application form. They fit the rule: Male or Female.
So what of the transgendered? A girl dresses like a boy, she must be a tomboy. A boy dresses as a girl, he must be gay. Yes thats what people think. They can't get past the fact that there could be some other state of being that is not just male or female.
And so, those of us who feel we are not wholly male or wholly female must decide which side of the fence we want to be on and undergo surgery to align ourselves to society rules, or go into hiding and lead secret lives lest we face ridicule.
Society needs to understand, to be educated that not everything is black and white; that its OK to feel different from the sex that you were born, to dress as you feel, and to express yourself as you feel; to be the person you were born. Then we can say: 'Society Rules OK!'
