What’s your gender?

A survey published in 2008 had a question about gender—and choices were male/man (26%), female/woman (41%), part time one or the other (20%), or fill in the blank with responders own term.  The fill in choice got 860 possibilities including genderqueer, hybrid, third gender, twidget, birl and pangender. 

I guess I’m not shocked that the researchers were shocked to find employment discrimination.

And I suppose that makes most of us anti-trany if we can’t figure it out.

“A gender not listed here,” The Williams Institute, UCLA, 2012

The slippery slope of words

Michael Smith writes: "What does it say about a society that has grown comfortable with cursing so ubiquitous as to be a normal part of conversation while being uncomfortable with words like "illegal alien", "gay" or "Merry Christmas?""

I like the term "undocumented Democrat" as a replacement for "illegal alien" which offends the sensitivities of people in Cleveland, Ohio, who don't live near the Texas/Mexico border.

"Gay" used to be a pejorative (addicted to pleasure and dissipation), but has come into its own, and now even "queer" has become quite acceptable, as is "trany."

I think, since the word "holiday" comes from holy day (hāligdæg, hālig "holy" + dæg "day"), we could compromise with "Blessed holy days" as an acceptable substitute for Merry Christmas, bringing in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and any others who want to join in on pleasant greetings of the season. The Bible used the Greek word makarios, which means to be happy or blissful. So why not have a happy blissful holy day?

Suicide attempts among transgendered

The prevalence of suicide attempts among respondents
to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey
(NTDS), conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality,
is 41 percent, which vastly exceeds the 4.6 percent of
the overall U.S. population who report a lifetime suicide
attempt, and is also higher than the 10-20 percent
of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults who report ever
attempting suicide.

http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf

The Williams Institute is dedicated to conducting rigorous, independent research on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy.  A national think tank at UCLA Law, the Williams Institute produces high-quality research with real-world relevance and disseminates it to judges, legislators, policymakers, media and the public.

The Williams Institute has done a state by state economic analysis of how gay marriage can boost state economies.  Ohio has about 20,000 same sex couples, and if 50% wanted to marry that would bring in about $70.8 million in spending on weddings and "tourism" (aka people traveling to attend the wedding). Well, if that's all it takes to boost Ohio's economy, why not insist that all couples living together without benefit of marriage just get married? Elsewhere I've seen estimates of the number of same sex couples that want to marry, and it really isn't all that high. The reasons are about the same as men everywhere give. 

Transgendered military

The New York Times this week claimed 15,000 members of the military are transgendered (mostly male to female according to other sources). That would mean over 1% of the military are transgendered. The Center of Excellence for Transgender Health at University of California at San Francisco estimates 1 in 30,000 people is a transwoman (biologically male) and 1 in 100,000 people is transman (biologically female). Even if every transgendered person in America were now active duty military, that’s a long way from 15,000. Or, correct my math.

http://transhealth.ucsf.edu/tcoe?page=lib-trans-count

Academic race and gender studies

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304858104579264321265378790

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/cjc0714hm.html

http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_2_multiculti-university.html

When is a course description a lecture in disguise?

When it's "gender studies." This is University of Illinois, Fall 2007 course listing. The seething anger in this course description is palpable. Don't be fooled. There are set-asides for women and minorities in all government building projects, and like affirmative action, they hurt women and minorities in the long run because their credentials are then always in question. If I were a female architectural student, I sure wouldn't waste my precious hours (it's a difficult curriculum) on going to this class--I'd just read the description and turn in a paper using all the victim jargon I could think of.

Architecture 424/Gender and Women’s Studies 424: GENDER AND RACE IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE (Anthony) TR 11:30-12:50 210 A Architecture

Out of all licensed architects in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), why are only 11% women, 3% Latino/a, 2% Asian, and less than 1% African American? In 2006, what accounts for such staggeringly low figures? Why has architecture lagged so far behind its counterparts of law and medicine, where sizeable advances already have been made? When so-called “minorities” are rapidly becoming majorities in so many American cities, what are the consequences when the diversity of the population is not reflected in the diversity of the architectural profession? And how can this be changed? How can the new generation of architects better respond to diversity and begin to change the culture of the profession? How can you, personally, make a difference? The purpose of this course is to introduce students to an aspect of architecture that has all too often been overlooked: the role of women and people of color (i.e., African Americans, Latino/Latina Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and others). As in many other fields, the work of white males has historically dominated architecture. Furthermore, due to the persistence of the "star system," valuable contributions of women architects and architects of color, for the most part, have not been recognized. To a certain extent, this pattern can also be seen in the related environmental design professions of landscape architecture and urban design. This course calls attention to the work of both women architects and architects of color as consumers, critics, and creators of the environment--as clients and users, writers and researchers, design practitioners, educators, and students. Prerequisite: Junior standing or consent of instructor.

Subtext: White Men: watch your backs!