At some
point this space will be used to talk about something other than transgenders once
every few weeks. But this is really annoying me and it’s the only thing I have
found worth addressing in my spare time. I’m not sure what it is that bothers
me the most about these stories; the societal acceptance, the media’s
presentation, or the lame-brained laws that are being put in place.
Let’s
look at the most recent case. The headline in this Telegraph article reads, “Six-year-old becomes first
transgender child in Argentina to change identity.” The headline of the story seems to
imply that this six-year-old (Lulu) had the awareness to know what being
transgendered is and had the wherewithal to do something about it by utilizing
a new government law. The article states:
A six-year-old girl, who was born a boy, has become the first transgender child in Argentina to have her new name officially changed on her identity documents.
The article states
that Argentina’s new Gender Identity Law
enshrines the right to be identified by name and sex as defined by the
individual. So that’s it? That’s
what it takes to become a different gender in Argentina? Obviously a
six-year-old would have to have the help and approval of their parents to get
this done. Which was certainly the case here:
The decision was made after Lulu’s mother, Gabriela, wrote to [the governor of Buenos Aires, Daniel Scioli] as well as Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner. She said her daughter identified herself as a girl as soon as she started talking.
Wouldn’t
it be possible that this has all come about because of poor guidance from the
mother and/or father? Maybe if they had been clearer about their child’s actual
gender, the young boy would not have identified himself as a girl. Or maybe the
parents just wanted a girl and decided this was the easiest way to have one. It
sounds like some cruel experiment that nobody seems to be questioning the
validity of.
While this whole transgender thing has not been fully clear to me, I was beginning to feel like I got it a little more… until this sentence showed up in the article:
Cesar Cigliutti, head of Homosexual Community Argentina (CHA), which supported the family, said Lulu’s case was “historic”.
So, is
Lulu transgendered or homosexual? They
are two different things, right? Not
that I think a six-year-old’s sexual identity should even remotely be on anyone’s radar.
The story really seems to highlight poor parenting and poor lawmaking.
It also
raises another question, though. While I don’t agree with the events that
transpired in Lulu’s case mostly because it deals with a six-year-old, what if
a person like myself (a heterosexual male in his 30’s who looks and talks
exactly like Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit) decided that they wanted to take the same steps? You basically
just go to some government office and say you identify yourself as a certain
gender and that’s it.You are now that gender. The M on my driver’s license
would suddenly become an F and I would officially be a woman. I could freely
shop in Victoria’s Secret, go into the dressing room and even the womens' restroom. Sure, I look and sound just like The Bandit, but if anyone had an
issue with it, I would pull out my driver’s license and point to the F and
reassure them, “Look, it’s not what you think. I am actually a transgendered
woman. With a penis. And I’m also a
lesbian.”
