Lost in Gender Identification & Sexuality

Nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures so far this year according to the Associated Press with at least 17 states passing laws that restrict or ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. With alarmingly increased cases of transgender identity and gender dysphoria among adolescents, gender-affirming care for minors has become a politically polarized topic rather than human rights.

Intolerance is a word that has been buzzing in my mind ever since Mr. Donald Trump won the Presidential Election in 2016. It was a heart-breaking day for me as I witnessed Mr. Trump win 62,985,106 American votes and become the 45th President of this nation with 306 electoral votes. Nearly 46% of American voters cast their votes for a man who spits out words of hate towards minorities and protected class. Nearly seven years later, should we be surprised that LGBTQ+ communities are considered to be more of a threat to children and adolescents than gun violence?

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Gender identification has been on my mind. Truthfully, I am indifferent to what gender or lack of that folks identify with. My life, although not complicated, has had its moments of darkness just like other folks. So I tend to work on self-care rather than get worked up about what gender folks identify with. As one former therapist would say, "What's it to you?" 

It has been on my mind because taking away an individual's right to express, pursue, and live according to their identified gender is a violation of their human rights. There is no way to get around that. While I am concerned by increased cases of gender dysphoria in recent years and how some may be attributed to social contagion according to an article published by Psychology Today, we cannot escape that it is an individual's right to express, pursue, and live life according to their identified gender. 

If you are going to wave the Bible in front of me, let me remind you that this nation was founded on the ideology of separation of church and state. Just as we have the right to practice the religion of our choice, that separation was placed also in the Constitution to prevent religion from influencing the government. When we take religion out of this conversation, we are left with human rights.

Our fear of unfamiliarity and discomfort with transgender, gender diverse, and nonbinary helped spread false information on gender identification and sexuality. This fear has led to protests among parents who oppose the discussion of gender identification and sexuality in schools. I ponder if the parents who are protesting Pride Month assemblies and education prefer their children learn about gender identification and sexuality on TikTok rather than from trained educators. Honestly, you can't prevent a child from being transgender, gender diverse, or nonbinary without harming their mental health. 

Rather than teaching who they are, what kind of person they are, and how they live with empathy, compassion, and meaningful intentions are what matters in life, we are teaching them to judge, exclude, and rob the rights of others based on gender identification and sexuality. We are teaching that those who may differ from us should be suppressed from expressing themselves, unable to pursue happiness when their happiness differs from ours, and forced to live a disillusioned life of normalcy dictated by society. 

Doesn't that simply sound cruel? In our obsession with gender identification and sexuality, we've lost our humanity. What matters is who we are and how we live our lives. The kind of person we are aren't determined by our genders and sexualities, but by the humanity we exercise in our lives. And that humanity includes respecting the rights of others to express, pursue, and live, no matter what that difference may be.