I am speaking of the people who act more as though it is their hobby to genderbend and who do not experience gender dysphoria at all. I see difficulty in placing this in the same box and under similar label as medical transition to alleviate serious mental anguish and dysphoria. Largely because a certain portion of trans awareness seems to be coming from these people, and they seem to want a complete re-definition of biological sex and gender. They appear to want a society in which there are however many genders and expressions, while most transitioning trans people are not aiming for this but for one of the two biological sexes and associated gender roles. I do believe the public is bemused by the confusion it creates. The public is now largely aware of what a transsexual is insofar as Caitlyn Jenner and a few other prominent transsexuals have reached them; and that it may be a medical issue is also within its awareness... but the idea of breaking down what we recognize as biological sex and gender and making it something else or almost an indefinable nebulous concept does not seem to be one widely understood or endorsed. It isn't making my life easier having to explain to both cis and trans people that I don't think it is helping us at this point in time to approach it quite as forcefully as they are, if indeed it is a good idea to "do away with" the concept of the biological genders. As a former biologist, I can't say any move to throwing away scientific facts in place of emotional concepts lacking concrete evidence sits 'well' with me either.



Nor does the policing of language now playing out in Toronto against a professor who has decided if he chooses not to use the pronouns a student tells him to that is his right in a free society. And it is his right in a free society, to not have his language policed in this way. If he goes to jail I will consider it a defeat for us all and for free speech rather than a victory for whichever trans students want to potentially prosecute this man because he didn't use a pronoun. Because my vision of a good society is one in which we do not throw our weight around to intimidate others, or to censor their speech in order to protect feelings. That is shades of Orwell and fascism, and this kind of story in the media certainly does not reflect well on trans people, to my mind. I do not want to be counted among people who want to act this way. I want to live in a free society, with free speech. Someone not using a pronoun is not violence against a person, and if it is to be thought of as 'attacking' them or their validity, I am afraid in the long run free speech is far more important to protecting a society than people's feelings, and it is a sacrifice I would personally find easy to make in order to protect that society from the creep of fascism and authoritarianism.



I don't consider either of these phenomena "good press" or necessarily positive visibility for us as trans people. I think some are moving forward without thinking about the long-term consequences of what they are doing and how they are doing it.

