If you are committed to equality, it is surely more important to change the world
than the language. After all, what’s wrong with maintaining distinct styles of
speech (dress, hairstyle, conduct, etc.) if these distinctions do not correspond to
domination and discrimination? Giving up on sex and gender distinction is not
an option because gender is the primary identity any human being holds.
Tertium datur: LGBT
Eradicating discrimination rather than difference is a message that pleases
another group (or group of groups) that in recent decades have demanded
recognition, the LGBTs, also LGBTQs. The acronym stands for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, trans (and queer and questioning), a fuzzy community of people who
do not fit the two-valued logic of heterosexual women and men united by the
desire not to be subsumed under it. Encouraged by the increasing influence of
feminists in research, higher education, and politics, LGBT advocacy groups
assert their identity more openly today than they were able to do in the past.
Opposing male dominance within the traditional dualistic gender framework is a
defining point of the LGBT agenda, as it is for feminists. However, this does not
mean that both always join forces. Initially, feminists were not welcoming of
LGBTs for fear of distracting from their main concern of equal rights for
women. Conversely, in forming pressure groups, LGBTs often left out (straight)
women, perhaps because the range of different concerns and identity issues of
gays, lesbians, and others identifying as transgender or non-binary is wide
enough in its own right. The desire to safeguard their proper identity may have
been an additional motive. Whenever an identity is asserted, more likely than not
there will be disagreement as to what it encompasses.
The LGBT agenda benefited from a new anthropology of difference based on
genetic research that supports more recognition of fluidity and complexity of sex
and gender. The interesting twist here is that while feminists concentrate on
socio-cultural gender roles, LGBTs have brought biological sex determination
and differentiation back into the discussion. Typically, the sex-determining
chromosomes are 46XX for women and 46XY for men, but some individuals are
born with other chromosome configurations (single or multiple sex
chromosomes).
These natural differences, LGBT persons maintain, should not be glossed over