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Gender is
not safe.
If I change my gender, I'm at risk of homicide, suicide or a life devoid
of half my possibilities.
If I'm born with a body that gives mixed gender signals, I'm at risk of
being butchered - fixed, mutilated.
Gender is not safe.
Gender is not sane.
It's not sane to call a rainbow black and white.
It's not sane to demand we fit into one or the other only.
It's not sane that we classify people in order to oppress them as women
or glorify them as men.
Gender is not sane.
Gender is not consensual.
We're born: a doctor assigns us a gender. It's documented by the state,
enforced by the legal profession, sanctified by the church, and it's bought
and sold in the media.
We have no say in our gender - we're not allowed to question it, play
with it, work it out with our friends, lovers, or family.
Gender is not consensual.
Safe gender is being who and what we want to be when we want to
be that, with no threat of censure or violence.
Safe gender is going as far in any direction as we wish, with no threat
to our health, or to anyone else's.
Safe gender is not being pressured into passing, not having to lie, not
having to hide.
Sane gender is
asking questions about gender - talking to people who do gender, and opening
up about our gender histories and our gender desires.
Sane gender is probably very, very funny.
Consensual gender
is respecting each others' definitions of gender, and respecting the
wishes of some to be alone, and respecting the intentions of others to
be inclusive in their own time.
Consensual gender is non-violent in that it doesn't force its way in on
anyone.
Consensual gender opens its arms and welcomes all people as gender outcasts
- whoever is willing to admit to it.
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