Reply #11: Educate... don't assume the worst of your fellow colleagues. [View All]

Why would the average non-transexual DUer know this? Where (if they have had no personal experience with transexuality)would they learn this? The newspapers and media, books, magazines.. all retain a convention of referring to the gender that an individual was born to until reassignment surgery has occurred. Someone noted that state law required them to be designated as the gender that they consider themselves to be and relate to, in terms of dress, while passports require the birth gender. Clearly there are no uniform conventions or acceptable conventions in these other contexts.

I sometimes use gender neutral language in these circumstances and where it does not sound ridiculous (e.g., the individual, the person), which I would likewise do, if referring to a unisex named individual (Bobby/Bobbie), whose gender I did not know.

But, the bottom line is that educating others on the issue will result in changes and allies to help you address the wider problem within society, bureaucracy, etc. Assuming people refer inappropriately to gender because they want to be insulting is not only wrong, IMO, but it eliminates an opportunity to educate and gain a proponent.


Edited for spelling/typos