Some men have vaginas and some women have penises. In fact, there are between 3,000 and 600,000 such people living in the United States, including some right here in BG.These people are known as transsexuals. It is possible to talk to a transsexual male all day, but never, ever realize that this male you are talking to has a vagina and a birth certificate that says female.
People who uphold the ideology that transsexuals cannot love are wrong and - in my opinion - sexist. They are alienating these "aliens" from the rest of society. It is not much different than the way African Americans were treated for years in the South after the Civil War, other than the fact that there are probably far fewer transsexuals to discriminate.
Which bathroom should a transsexual use? Should there be "transsexual" bathrooms (discriminatory) or should the bathrooms be "gender neutral," available for the use of everyone who is straight or lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT)?
While I applaud our universitiy's efforts to include a gender neutral bathroom in every building on campus, not only because of LGBT rights but for the straight community as well (GNBs are both more efficient and more private), many bathrooms on campus that could be easily converted have remained unchanged.
The most obvious examples are the bathrooms on the first floor of MacDonald Hall that people line up to use everyday. Those people wouldn't need to wait in line if the bathrooms were gender neutral, because both bathrooms could be used by either sex.
A policy I will not applaud the University for is failing to offer the partners of LGBT faculty and staff the rightful benefits they deserve and that are offered by every other state university in Ohio and 7,000 other employers across the country.
No, we are confident in becoming a "premier learning institution" without the help of the more than 10 prospective faculty/staff we alienate from here every single year because of this policy.
Of course, these transsexual people are not only discriminated against when they go to the bathroom, when they try to get a job or when they are, quite simply, walking down the street. They are also told they can not marry, because people have already decided that marriage does not include these "freaks."
It is individual people with varying views who define marriage. Despite this fact, the definition of marriage was placed into the law books with the Defense of Marriage Acts, effectively telling me what to think about this important social and cultural tradition.
I define marriage as two people loving each other for the rest of their lives and possibly raising a child. Not a man and a woman that have sex to create a child. There are plenty of "natural" marriages that don't involve any sex of any kind.
What about women or men who are married and have reproductive problems? Should we not let them get married because God made them a miracle like the rest of us?
In fact, the ideology held by those who discriminate against transsexuals claims that they are not miracles, that their love is not an extraordinary miracle.
I ask all those reading this column today: is a more "feminine" man or a more "masculine" woman not an extraordinary miracle?
And, all jokes aside, if they find love in this world of discrimination is that not more of a miracle than the circumstances surrounding the formation of most straight relationships?
Those amazing gay relationships, which survive the test of time in a hostile and discriminatory U.S., are the perfect places to raise adopted children in my opinion. They are bonds that in many cases are stronger than a straight relationship ever will be. Just look at the circumstances under which they exist!
In a way, this discrimination is good, because it reminds people around the world about what real love is like: Undying, even in the face of millions of people who claim your love is a myth.
I am glad I could introduce these two groups, those who discriminate and the people they discriminate against. At least now we all know one of the many groups of people who have had their love lives ripped from them by a society that wishes to control the many with the ideologies of the few.
Next time you decide to make assumptions about biology, you had better check the shorts of the person sitting next to you. But, of course, you can't do that, which is why you shouldn't make assumptions, even if it is an assumption that has been held by people ignorant to biological diversity for thousands of years.
from The Bowling Green News / Matt Clark
No comments:
Post a Comment