Gender Issues: What’s the Fuss?

By Dick Moore, Senior Pride Network of Niagara

Source: St. Catharines Standard

I’ve been hearing a lot about gender these days. There was an article in the newspaper lately about a transgender athlete competing in a hockey league. Then someone sent me a link to a video by a transwoman speaking about her experience as a woman and her new awareness of the privilege she enjoyed as a man that she had been completely oblivious to. Last year an entire edition of National Geographic Magazine was dedicated to gender. We’ve all followed the celebrities who have transitioned including Chaz Bono, Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, and Carmen Carrera. The movement for transgender equality has only lately been a high-profile topic.

Now a days, at some meetings participants are asked to introduce themselves by giving their name and their preferred pronouns. This exercise is to alert participants that they cannot assume what the gender of another participant is just by their looks.