The World Will End In A Massive Explosion Of Hurt Feelz
Look, I'm -- personally -- all for trying to call you Betty if you prefer that, despite, say, your having previously been known to me as Bob for decades.
However, we've gone a little crazypants in the accommodating everybody's everything department.
From the Telegraph/UK:
Women who identify as men are not being routinely offered potentially life saving NHS screening for breast and cervical cancer, amid fears it might offend them it is claimed.However men living as women are being invited for cervical smear tests even though they do not have a cervix, an official guidebook states.
Via @YeyoZa, who notes, "Yet more evidence we're all living in a Monty Python sketch."
"You have the right to a cervical screening test Stan":
Yes, this used to be comedy, not reality.
Chas has a VG idea.
Crid at January 17, 2018 1:27 AM
Joshua Sutcliffe is a 27 year-old math teacher in the UK who told two teenage students “well done girls!” So what’s the problem? One of the biological girls “chose” to identify as a boy—so Joshua was charged with “misgendering” and lost his job.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42312342
Snoopy at January 17, 2018 4:48 AM
“Look, I'm -- personally -- all for trying to call you Betty if you prefer that, despite, say, your having previously been known to me as Bob for decades.
However, we've gone a little crazypants in the accommodating everybody's everything department.”
The warning bells were going off several years ago in the Jenner discussion that this would not end well.
There is a land mined slime pit at the bottom of the slippery slope of believing that it is possible to reconfigure your sex organs or any other body part to align with your mental illness.
Now we are on to the *everyone needs to validate my craziness stage*
No way to roll it back now.
Isab at January 17, 2018 7:09 AM
I wondered in an earlier thread if, instead of accommodating gender identity issues with the Bruce/Caitlin silliness, we weren't instead enabling mental illness. I think we are. I don't think we're doing any favors to the gender dysmorphic with open access locker rooms or gender-neutral pronouns.
Conan the Grammarian at January 17, 2018 7:20 AM
Since he has the legal right to change his name to whatever he wants, I'm obligated to use it. Freedom of speech says I can call him, "Bruce," "Caitlyn" or "Fuckhead" if I want to. (Frankly, I think the third one on that list is the most fitting.)
However, if I enter contractual agreements with him, I'm obligated to use his legal name.
But freedom of speech says I can use masculine pronouns, regardless of how offended he gets.
So, basically, I will call him Caitlyn, because, regardless of my personal opinions of him, I'm not altogether a complete boor.
But there's no law that says I have to accommodate the rest of his insanity.
As for the hold "restroom issue," I think ultimately we'll end up rethinking public accommodations like locker rooms. Perhaps a public common area surrounded by small changing rooms, and individual bathrooms. Yes, it will be a lot more work, but I don't see another solution...other than rolling back gender dysmorphia back to the stage of mental illness, where it belongs.
Patrick at January 17, 2018 7:36 AM
But there's no law that says I have to accommodate the rest of his insanity.
Transphobe.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 17, 2018 8:04 AM
I still want to know why it is that, if one is permitted to self-identify any gender they want, then why can't one also self-identify their race? Surely, if genetics does not determine sex, then it doesn't determine race either.
Cousin Dave at January 17, 2018 9:24 AM
I'm still stuck on why trans issues are lumped in with gay and lesbian issues. Some trans people are gay; some are straight. Gender identification has nothing to do with sexual orientation.
If someone expressed to me "preferred pronouns" on first meeting, I'd be polite but make an Irish goodbye so as not to cause inadvertent offense.
Kevin at January 17, 2018 10:33 AM
Because there aren't that many of any of them Kevin. They teamed up to increase the head count.
Ben at January 17, 2018 2:17 PM
How hard is it to send everyone the same letter?
"A person with a vagina/ cervix/ uterus, is advised to get the following exams... a person with testes/ a prostate, is advised to get these exams... Breast cancer screening is available in the following ways; factors you should consider when determining whether to obtain a mammogram are..."
One public service announcement, delivered in the post. Sort yourselves.
Michelle at January 17, 2018 10:00 PM
There is a subset of lesbians quite upset at the lumping in, particularly since they are being told if they reject penis they are transphobic bigots who deserve to die.
NicoleK at January 18, 2018 4:28 AM
There are plenty of transphobic bigots who are also lesbians. It's not pretty but it's true.
Send one letter with all the options, let people sort themselves out.
Not all women are alike, not all boobs are alike (density of breast tissue can require a different approach), some women need.to goad some me into managing their own health care, etc. - the letter can serve a broader public service.
Michelle at January 18, 2018 7:11 AM
*some men
Michelle at January 18, 2018 7:13 AM
Sure, Michelle, but being physically attracted to only one sex (as opposed to gender) does not make one a transphobic bigot, even though it gets treated that way.
NicoleK at January 25, 2018 1:21 AM
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