I was conversing the other day with someone I'd met through The Temple. Seemed a fine enough sort. *head tilts* A little on the self-deprecating side of things, which tends to set off both my "mommy you" and my "have sex with yoouuu?" instincts at the same time. *ahem* Make of that what you will. During the course of our discussion, this person asserted that they were "Agender". *shrugs* This made no impact on me, which seemed to surprise them. They seemed grateful that I wasn't reacting negatively. They weren't trying to shock or offend me but they were so used to that being the feedback that they'd come to expect it. How horrible... I thought to myself. Why would anyone make such a bluster-fust over something so simple? A person sees themselves as being innately of no gender. *shrugs, brow furrowed* They wish to be referred to by "they/them" pronouns? Why would anyone care enough to be upset about that?
I know some people have apparently been lambasted by another for mis-gendering them, a simple enough mistake. I’ve heard tales of “screaming and crying” by some folkes over this issue, flying into fits of rage and so on. I’ve not seen it, but I’m sure it has happened or at least something similar to this. Regardless, this is not the issue at hand...
I myself was born "intersexed" as the doctors call it, a "herm". Perhaps that has made me more sensitive to their situation, true. That doesn't change the facts though, does it, lovely tumblrs? We all make concessions for people, every day we are out and about, socializing. We call people "sir" and "ma'am", titles of respect, basically as a means of civil discourse. You likely have at least a few people in your life whom you refer to by names other than their legal ones. The "why" of it doesn't matter. You simply do because they ask you to. Among my colleagues at the lab, just in my department there are Brian(Donald), Matt(Thomas), Mike(Michael), Lonnie(Lionell) and in other departments there are all manner of people with names which are their "Americanized" equivalents of Chinese, Laotian, Malaysian and Polynesian names which I will not attempt to type here as I would butcher them horribly. At the end of the day, lovely tumblrs, it doesn't matter if you "get" what they feel or understand it, if you "know that there's just two genders" or actually accept that as untrue. Unless you're fucking, all that matters is just treating people with a basic level of dignity, compassion and respect. They're people, just like you and they just want to be happy, like you, me and all of our mums. *smiles* One World for us all, beautiful fuzzies. One world and One love.