#8: Final Post

I have really enjoyed writing this blog. I love learning about issues surrounding gender and seuxality, not only because there is yet injustice to be addressed and people to help, but because I think all the identities people are capable of having are beautiful. The complex, incomprehensible nature of human beings is something that can't be understood in one class, or in many. It is not something that can be quantified, and if I have spoken to a small part of that understanding with this blog I will be more than satisified.

I have learned more about an issue which I find interesting. I was especially interested to find out that the intersex community does not wish to abolish gender. Of course, I then felt guilty for assuming that just because someon'e body was in between ideas of male and female, that they would also prefer some third gender. Because, after all, gender and sex do not always have to "match up" in a specific way. I would this interesting because it showed me that I still have biases and internal ideas about what people should be. I was also interested and saddened by learning about the effects that ostracism can have on people. We often forget that hurt does not only include physical violence, but also words and social actions. We are social human beings and to deny someone the company of another person is just astoundingly cruel. I was also astounded when I delved deeper into issues I already knew about. For example, I was surprised by the breadth of hardships which face bisexuals, and by the silence and lack of awareness which surrounds this issue. Overall, I am surprised by the amount of knowledge which is easily available. Despite this, people tend to know little facts surrounding these issues, and much misinformation and myths.

I hope that I have educated someone, if just a little bit. This sort of sentimentalism may be out of place in a social science, but I firmly believe that education allows us to become more compassionate, understanding, and tolerant people. I hope that all those who have read felt a bit more enlightened, and that they perhaps will be able to teach someone else as well.

#7.5:Asexual Discrimination

(I am making this extra post because I did not want to end my blog without having spoken at least something about all the identities I mentioned in my first post.)

Asexuals are often accused of "having it easy" compared to other non-heterosexual identities. However, they too can face problems because of their orientation. One example of this is corrective rape, where people will feel that they can "fix" someone asexual by sexually assaulting them.They also are more likely to be discriminated against by any sexual person (be they gay, straight or bi), than any other group. LGBT groups may accuse asexuals of trying to "coopt the movement", and they may receive less support and help from organizations which are supposed to help all gender and sexual minorities.   People also tend to believe that asexuals are thought of as less human for not having a sexual nature. The stereotype of asexuals that people have is that they cold, awkward, unfriendly, and even robotic.

Why is it that people cannot understand or respect asexuality? Is it that human beings fundamentally lack empathetic imagination? Is it that for most people, a sexual nature is so ingrained that to think otherwise becomes impossible? Is it society that teaches us that sex is fundamental to our lives? Whatever the reason, we should still strive to treat everyone with respect.

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#7: Intersex People, Gender, and "Normalizing" Surgery

The Intersex Society of North America explains that the "corrective" surgeries often performed on young children born with ambiguous genitalia can be much more traumatizing than they are helpful. In, studies done on intersex people who were allowed to keep their bodies as they were at birth were well-adjusted and had "lower rates of psychopathology than the general population". On the other hand, forcing infants to physically conform to societal ideas of what constitutes a male or female body can be damaging in the long run, especially as the surgeries involved often are irreversible. This means if the child does not identify as the gender which their body was modified to reflect, they have more difficulty transitioning. (It is also known that intersex people have higher rates of gender transition than the average population.)

However, the ISNA does not advocate raising an intersex child as a third gender. Instead, they advocate assigning a male or female gender to an intersex child at birth (without doing surgeries). Why? Because gender does not have to equal a specific kind of body and genitals. Many intersex advocates are comfortable with binary gender, and say that the discomfort they faced was more due to the shame surrounding surgeries and less with their assigned or chosen (binary) gender. Of course, some intersex people also have a non-binary gender. Like the general population, most intersex people will fall easily into male/female categorization. It comes down to the parents and doctors to take an educated guess so as to the child's future gender (for example, children with complete androgen (male hormone) insensitivity will grow up to identify as female) and socialize the child into that gender. If needed, that child can later transition to another gender, without the added trouble of having undergone irreversible surgeries early in life. Additionally, raising a child as a third gender from birth could be traumatizing, as our society has yet little concept of what this would entail.

  While many people would expect ISNA to want to eradicate gender, things are not that simple. What is important for intersex people, like all people, is to have their points of view heard and respected:

"We hope that scholars, particularly those invested in helping members of marginalized groups gain a voice in conversations about themselves, will take seriously the concerns about surgery, secrecy and shame raised by intersex people and understand that ISNA and the majority of its constituency don't necessarily share the goal of eradicating the very concept of gender".
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#6: Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations

          Bisexuals are sometimes thought by gay monosexuals to "have it easier". In fact, research shows that statistically, bisexual face higher rates of problems such as poverty and suicide.What bisexuals face especially is an invisibility in the community, as they are often bunched in with gays and lesbians, despite actually being the majority. While many people think it is "just a phase" a study has shown that over the span of ten years 92% of the bisexual women kept the identity. In the queer community, bisexuals activities are forgotten; historical bisexuals such as Freddie Mercury are repainted as simply gay. Institutions which help gays and lesbians often do not have special attention to bisexuals, and monosexual men and women tend to disparage and questions their bisexual partners' orientation. The study from which this information comes details a multitude of biphobic actions and attitudes. Suffice to say that "a study published in the Journal of Sex Research reported that heterosexuals rate bisexuals as a group less favorably than any of a number of groups (including Catholics, lesbians, people with AIDS, and people who are pro-life), except for the category of people who inject illegal drugs".

The problems bisexuals face, especially those that stem from invisibility and biphobia, are many:

"-Bisexual people experience greater health disparities than the broader population, including a
greater likelihood of suffering from depression and other mood or anxiety disorders.
- Bisexuals report higher rates of hypertension, poor or fair physical health, smoking, and
risky drinking than heterosexuals or lesbians/gays.
- Many, if not most, bisexual people don’t come out to their healthcare providers. This means
they are getting incomplete information (for example, about safer sex practices).
- Most HIV and STI prevention programs don’t adequately address the health needs of
bisexuals, much less those who have sex with both men and women but do not identify as
bisexual.
- Bisexual women in relationships with monosexual partners have an increased rate of
domestic violence compared to women in other demographic categories. "

Read the study here.