Quote:
Originally Posted by Aylmer
Your premise is flawed though. Things like race and gender are things that you can't hide. In fact, they don't have full meaning without the recognition of others. If you wake up tomorrow identifying as black, what does that mean if no one recognizes you that way? Religion, tastes, sexual orientation, you can keep entirely secret and remain true no matter what anyone else thinks. That's not the case of gender.
Your concern for the non-binary and trans is very woke, congratulations But watch out - if you're invoking in good faith the fleeting discomfort of quickly stating your gender, you also have to acknowledge the much greater discomfort of being misgendered.
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With all due respect, I think you're making the arguments match the "moment in time" instead of match the logic.
I don't think you and I can speak conclusively about what every non-binary or trans person would prefer.
That's why the societal baseline has been "private is private", and everyone gets to decide what they want to share, and coercion to do so is unwelcome.
I'd also disagree with your breakdown of what's visible and what isn't.
Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire is of Haitian origin and Black but a lot of people would probably intuitively consider her white just by what she looks like.
One of my kids is olive-skinned so definitely not "pink" like Rob and Doug Ford, and therefore could be Southern European, Middle Eastern or Latin American.
Which I guess makes my kid borderline non-white but... so what? Generic "non-white" being a totally meaningless construct from an ethno-cultural and even racial perspective. There is nothing really obvious to anyone about my kid in this respect. No one can guess... "Oh, you're Persian."
As for sexual orientation being something you can keep entirely secret, I guess you've never heard of gay-bashing? Not everyone who is homosexual can keep it entirely secret it seems, and even some people who are heterosexual have trouble keeping their
presumed homosexuality (based on stereotypes) secret and they get bashed for being gay when they're not!