Truth and Gender Dysphoria

It was just yesterday, a peculiarly rainy day for mid-December on the prairies, when my father and I got back on our oh-so-familiar debate of the transgender movement. My father, being the conservative correctional officer that he is, never fails to voice his opinion that there exist only 2 genders; he seems to be rather unconsciously offended by the transgender movement and hence asked me how their could be any truth in it. How it is that a female could identify as a male? She clearly has female sex organs, not male, and that is the truth. The truths as we now know it, at least.

21 years into this life, though, and I just can’t imagine how or why such a plethora of individuals could independently come to the conclusion that they are not the gender their body identifies them as. This world is far too cruel and oppressive for one to simply pursue such out of fun, curiosity, or the desire to be perceived as different (as some claim as the motivating force behind these individuals choosing such a life for themselves). So, I can only presume, without ever having experienced, that what these transgender individuals experience is, in fact, true.

Which, in turn, leads me to recognize that maybe instead of asking (or violently suggesting) that these individuals remain something they’re not, in the name of truth, we ought to refocus our attention to what our conception of truth is. After all, as rational animals that desire to live and prosper in this world, do we not have the duty to constantly evolve our conception of truth based upon the evidence we are presented with? Here we are, being presented with such evidence that leads us to question the very notion of what it is to identify as an individual; perhaps the one identifying attribute of an individual which mankind felt could never ever be questioned. I’ll admit that I’ve honestly no idea what it’s like to realize that I am not the gender which my body professes me to be. I have no inkling what it is like to wake up every single day and feel uncomfortable in the confines of the most intimate home known to man, our body. And yet I can’t imagine, not for one second, that anyone would ever dream up, and henceforth live, such a reality for themselves.

Yet this is the reality we are faced with. We, as members of the human species, have the duty to determine how such a manifestation fits into our conception of reality. How it fits into our individual identity as such. It is no longer as simple as merely choosing between male and female for many of our fellow humans. And I believe it is our duty, even if we ourselves do not identify as transgender, to determine and support where these people should find themselves to fit into society. I believe it is our duty to employ our compassion and understanding in this time of such turbulent social unrest. For it’s hard enough for them to redefine the truth of whom they are to themselves without having to reckon with, and fight against society at every step of the way.

The truth of gender is no longer black or white. It is no longer male or female. We find ourselves at the dawn of a new horizon, with maybe as many genders as there are colours in the rainbow. It does not look like anything society dreamed up in its wildest fictions and yet here it is. A social revolution of truth rivalling that of the Copernican Revolution all those years ago. Are we going to remain steadfast in our negation of reality as it really is; like those ignorant fools throughout history who so clung to the traditional perspectives in spite of all the evidence to the later? Or are we to be the revolutionaries of a new era? An era redefining every conception we once held, on gender, identity, human interaction and above all else, truth.

We alone have the choice here; the choice to open ourselves up to reality as it really is, or to turn our backs on life for fear or discomfort. I, for one, choose everyday to jump on this wild ride that is life with an open mind and an even broader heart.