WHEN CONSERVATISM IS SIMPLY BIGOTRY.

I recently read an article about an AFAB person who came out as non-binary to their boyfriend, and the comments from right-wingers ranged from the ridiculous to the preposterously offensive.

I gave the example that say you went to school with a guy whose name was Victor Robert Johnson and he hated the name Victor and decided, when he reached adulthood, to call himself Bob, and he attended the 30 Year School Reunion, would you say to him, “I knew you as Victor, so I will call you Victor,” or would you call him Bob?

I then had people saying they wanted to be identified as a giraffe or a helicopter, which I considered nonsensical responses. One of them accused me of hypocrisy or double standards because I supported the non-binary person but not their claim. There is an obvious difference in circumstances to anybody who cares to view it objectively. And there’s another obvious difference.

Let me give this example. I remember a Mitsubishi dealer had a Toyota HiAce as a courtesy bus. They had taken the Toyota logo off and replaced it with a Mitsubishi sticker. A Toyota HiAce doesn’t have feelings and it can’t fight back and say, “No, I’m a Toyota!” And, if you bought a Falcon secondhand from a Holden dealer, it may have a Holden dealer’s sticker on it, advertising that fact, but it is not a Holden. And, to give another example, in this regard, I have known people who had a Ford Falcon as a company car, and when the company changed to Commodores, or they changed jobs, and received a Commodore, remarked that the Commodore wasn’t as comfortable as the Falcon, a sentiment that I agree with. I remember a man saying that a friend of his bought a Statesman and the only comfort he could get was to get Ford Fairmont Ghia seats with which to replace the seats in the Statesman. To that I say, the Fairmont Ghia seats will make the seating in the Statesman more comfortable, but the ride won’t be, because Holden cars typically have a firmer ride, and Ford cars typically have a smoother, softer ride.

My explanation of transgenderism is this: I remember watching an episode of Catalyst, where an experiment was conducted, showing a man and a woman each having to perform four tasks, simultaneously, one of which involved supervising a child. The man could focus more heavily on one task, while the woman could shift amongst all four. I, myself, can only perform one task at a time, unless I have one main task and one minor task. For example, if you asked me to cook savoury mince and boiled potatoes, I could put the potatoes in the microwave for ten minutes, and cook the mince, so the potatoes would be out of sight and mind until the microwave beeped, thus allowing me to focus on the mince, but if I had four pans on the stove, I would become flustered. So, a person can have male sexual organs but have a brain that is more in line with a female brain and vice versa.

If a person is non-binary, what it means is, they don’t identify as male or female.

What I say to those who attack and criticize those who are transgender or non-binary is, if a person does not conform to your social paradigm, you have no right to correct them. If you refer to them as he or she and they ask you to refer to them as they, please do so. And, no, it’s not incorrect grammar! For example, if you want to book in for a haircut and the receptionist says, over the phone, “You can have Lee or Leslie,” but doesn’t tell you what sex they are, you might refer to them as they, so as not to make assumptions. And that’s not wrong.

And let me give another example. My kindergarten teacher was Miss Cathcart. She was also my brother’s kindergarten teacher, one year, and the following year, when my brother moved into the upper group, she married and became Mrs Lane, and she told the kids that that would be her new name. I know, for some women, particularly professional women, they may retain their birth surname for professional purposes and go by their married surname in their personal life. But, the difference is, a female doctor’s patients don’t typically associate with her socially as well as medically. And, say you have a Japanese teacher, who is Miss Smith at school, but is Mrs Yamakawa at home, she’s not, if she sees her students out and about, going to snap at them for calling her Miss Smith. And, if you had a teacher at school, whom you called Miss Smith, and, as a 40 year old, she told you to call her Mary, that can take some getting used to, but it can be done.

So, forcing trans and non-binary people to conform to conservative or traditional paradigms is nothing more than entrenching bigotry.