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mickeymMale, female or neither? Gender identity debated at same-sex colleges
When Kevin Murphy entered as a freshman at Mount Holyoke, a Massachusetts women's college, in 2003, he was female. By the time he received his diploma, he was male.
Phillip Hudson, who attended Morehouse, an all-male historically black college in Georgia, calls himself androgynous, meaning he doesn't identify with masculine or feminine identity norms.
The two men represent a debate that is brewing at some of the nation's same-sex colleges. For these colleges, which have historically defied boundaries and challenged the status quo, a new test of tolerance has surfaced: How are they handling gender identity?
Defining gender on same-sex campuses has become murky as some students say they fall outside the conventional male-female gender binary. More schools are encountering complicated cases where not all students at men's colleges identify as male and not all students at women's colleges identify as female.
The diversity of gender expression comes in many forms, from individuals who consider themselves androgynous or nongender-conforming to students who are transgender or in the process of changing their sex. Transgender people are often defined as those who do not identify with the gender they were at birth.
Read the whole article here.
Some of the comments were awesome, and some of them made my blood pressure rise. And rise, and rise and rise.
Oh! And another article that's making my blood pressure rise again. (Can y'all tell I'm reading CNN.com?)
Catholics split over church's campaign against same-sex marriage - I particularly enjoyed the following paragraph:
"[Marriage] is the natural way we bring together men and women to conceive and raise the next generation," he said, speaking directly to the camera. "What will happen to children growing up in a world where the law teaches them that moms and dads are interchangeable?"
I kind of want to smack the Bishop. Hard. Not all men and women who get married want or have children; gays and lesbians getting married isn't going to STOP the heterosexual couples from having children if they want to, and shouldn't children grow up in a world where they're loved and learn to love, regardless of things like gender, sexual orientation, religion, race and so on? Jesus.
When Kevin Murphy entered as a freshman at Mount Holyoke, a Massachusetts women's college, in 2003, he was female. By the time he received his diploma, he was male.
Phillip Hudson, who attended Morehouse, an all-male historically black college in Georgia, calls himself androgynous, meaning he doesn't identify with masculine or feminine identity norms.
The two men represent a debate that is brewing at some of the nation's same-sex colleges. For these colleges, which have historically defied boundaries and challenged the status quo, a new test of tolerance has surfaced: How are they handling gender identity?
Defining gender on same-sex campuses has become murky as some students say they fall outside the conventional male-female gender binary. More schools are encountering complicated cases where not all students at men's colleges identify as male and not all students at women's colleges identify as female.
The diversity of gender expression comes in many forms, from individuals who consider themselves androgynous or nongender-conforming to students who are transgender or in the process of changing their sex. Transgender people are often defined as those who do not identify with the gender they were at birth.
Read the whole article here.
Some of the comments were awesome, and some of them made my blood pressure rise. And rise, and rise and rise.
Oh! And another article that's making my blood pressure rise again. (Can y'all tell I'm reading CNN.com?)
Catholics split over church's campaign against same-sex marriage - I particularly enjoyed the following paragraph:
"[Marriage] is the natural way we bring together men and women to conceive and raise the next generation," he said, speaking directly to the camera. "What will happen to children growing up in a world where the law teaches them that moms and dads are interchangeable?"
I kind of want to smack the Bishop. Hard. Not all men and women who get married want or have children; gays and lesbians getting married isn't going to STOP the heterosexual couples from having children if they want to, and shouldn't children grow up in a world where they're loved and learn to love, regardless of things like gender, sexual orientation, religion, race and so on? Jesus.
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no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 01:50 am (UTC)*seethes*
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 02:04 am (UTC)But these days? No. Not at all. *seethes with you*
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 02:45 am (UTC)interesting, thanks for linking to it!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 06:55 am (UTC)Surely the law already teaches them that? Divorce allows original parents to be "swapped out" for different models all the time, sometimes repeatedly. Bishop gets 0 marks for logic. Besides, what is 'natural' about marriage? It's an entirely artificial arrangement which has gone through many mutations of purpose (though admittedly the basic idea, that a male must control 'his' female in order to be certain that her offspring are also his, seems to be pretty consistent). I don't think the anti same-sex marriage crowd *can* make a logical argument against it. I haven't seen one yet.
As for the colleges, hmm. Interesting and complicated. It's obviously a good thing that so many more options are being recognised these days, and it's never going to be a "one answer fits all" situation. I wonder why someone who wants to transition would choose to go to a single sex college for the 'wrong' sex? Are the single sex colleges actually more liberal than a lot of mixed ones?
no subject
Date: 2010-11-09 07:15 am (UTC)I never expect the Catholic Church to vanguard intelligent thought on any subject even remotely connected to sex. So much of my cultural legacy (my family lives in Cork) has been subverted by the influence of Roman Catholicism that it's taken most of a lifetime to sort out spiritual and political matters just in my own little life, never mind considerations in the big picture. And as far as gender and sexuality goes, what can anyone say when you start out with the premise that all sex that is not intended for reproduction is an affront to god?
So messed up...