The Georgia Straight published an article last week about the gender binary conundrum. Specifically the article attempts to humanize people who are living outside of society’s gender rules.
Life isn’t necessarily easy for transsexuals and intersexuals—many trans people regard surgery as the only alternative to suicide—but as more gender-variant folks realize their unique potentials, they are pointing toward greater spaciousness in the experience of gender for all of us.
After reading the article I was slightly disappointed. This issue is extremely interesting on a variety of levels, and the article really only tries to tackle the individual’s experiential side. While this is most definitely an important aspect of the issue, I think that by focusing on the individuals we miss out on seeing how the larger picture can impact ‘transsexuals’.
Societal dogma is something that needs to be examined with respect to erasing the binary nature of gender. Hopefully recent legalization of same-sex marriage is at least a small step in the right direction. But then are we defining this change for sex, or for gender?