NY Times on new gender perspectives

[Charlize]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/a-university-recognizes-a-third-gender-neutral.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone&_r=1&referrer=

I found this very interesting and would certainly have loved this kind of exploration and life as an undergraduate. Being true to ourselves can mean so many things when dealing with gender.

Hugs,

Charlize

[Guest RachelMichaels]

That was an interesting article. How progressive of them. Vermont. Hmmm. Have to keep an eye and an ear in that direction and see how that pans out.

Personally tho, I would much rather be called(what some say is taboo now) 'crossdresser' over 'genderqueer' any day. I am hopeful for a better term(and easier to spell) than 'androgynous' but I sure hope nothing 'queer' comes as a solution. Negative connotation to me.

Didn't catch that one mother's age who said "...is that what this is going to be about? Pronouns?" Sounds like something a younger 'Want it and want it now' person would say, as I would think(and hope) those who were older and perhaps a little wiser would know that we are in the stage of the first building blocks of this movement and have to create a firm base before we start blowing up balloons. Can't stare at your wristwatch on this one. Too big an issue.

Thanks for posting this. I may even refer back to that article for updates on a project I'll be producing later this year, if my other pieces to it fall in order before then.

[Guest]

"Queer" is all the rage these days. They've completely reclaimed the word...no one seems to recognize or remember that it usedto be very negative.

Personally I don't really buy word reclamation, but I guess enough do to make it a reality.

[Guest Ripley]

I quite like the term queer. I've no idea what it's specifically intended to mean in context of an identifier, but it has no negative connotations for me. As an insult, it always fell flat in my ears. I even found it a bit funny that anyone thought I should be offended at essentially being called "strange and unusual". I take that as a compliment. All the people I've ever looked up to are strange and unusual.

[Guest Ashley_D]

I wear the "Queer" portion with pride...perhaps it is because I do believe that reclaiming words is a good thing. I see it as a way of taking back power that was stolen. *shrugs* We are living in a time where the English language is in such a state of flux. People don't know how to speak to their family, friends, or neighbors without fear of offending someone or being politically incorrect. There are so many articles discussing both gender and sexual identity focused on what to not say to groups of people, and while it is good to know those things, I feel that it is distracting from things that actually need to be talked about or acted on. Just my two cents.

[Guest sydney]

"Queer" is all the rage these days. They've completely reclaimed the word...no one seems to recognize or remember that it usedto be very negative.

Personally I don't really buy word reclamation, but I guess enough do to make it a reality.

My uncle and I were discussing this earlier today as he was asking me advice on a old friend who he thinks is trying to come out as transgender and sounded like was Gender Queer or transgender. I told him about Gender Queer (and how I identified that way prior to coming out transgender), as he still thought Queer was a derogatory word to use, and I explained it how it's been reclaimed and what it exactly means now.