Make no mistake, though. Those same people of good will may hold the key to freeing the gender-blenders from oppression and violence, if they can be roused to active support.
Every successful movement for social change needs just such a broad base of support. That's why Dr. King called those lukewarm white moderates the great stumbling block to his own movement's success. Doug McAdam, a prominent scholar of the civil rights movement, notes that it had to "compel supportive intervention by liberal northern allies" to the point where sympathetic media coverage and broad public support for the movement could be mobilized." He quotes famed civil rights leader Bob Moses: "When the interest of the country is awakened, the government responds to that issue."
America's laws now demand that schools, parks, restaurants, and the like be open to all. Even virulent racists no longer call for those laws to be repealed. That's because things do indeed become unthinkable once a large enough chunk of the public views them that way. Just as no one talks openly about reinstituting Jim Crow laws anymore, nobody urges that the vote be taken away from women either.
How can we make the right of gender-blenders simply to be who they are an equally unquestionable part of American society? Perhaps the key is to persuade well-meaning but confused and hesitant Americans not merely to tolerate them, or even simply to speak out for their safety or rights, but to appreciate how they actually enrich life for us all.
How we treat the most marginal and vulnerable among us determines the quality of life for the rest of us, too. A good society takes care of the most vulnerable by assuring their safety and the means to sustain their lives, along with their liberty to choose their own unique paths in pursuing happiness. If some find happiness by blending familiar categories, or even erasing the lines between them totally, supporting their choice could make a better society for us all.
The famed poet Walt Whitman suggested that there are "two main constituents for a truly grand nationality: first, a large variety of character, and second, full play for human nature to expand itself in numberless and even conflicting directions."
Gender-blenders serve us by bringing us closer to that ideal. They are a model for a truly free society where we don't feel compelled to fit ourselves into narrow binary categories, where everyone can accept themselves and explore who they really are, safely and without shame.
If the gender-blenders are provocative, all the better. Then they'll provoke us to think and talk more freely about individuality, acceptance, and true community. Why wouldn't we want them teaching our children? Even a 10-year-old can see that drag performers are "the most encouraging thing ever." Openly non-binary and transgender people can be similarly encouraging.
Just to speak for myself, I'm so proud of my child, and the many thousands like them, claiming and proclaiming their right to pursue happiness by tearing down the old gender walls. To me, they " and in this case I mean all of them " are heroes because, as Whitman put it, they "walk at their ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits them not. "
I will be equally proud of my country when enough of us stand up strongly for the right to, and value of, gender fluidity " so strongly that this innocent and socially constructive pursuit of happiness will never make anyone vulnerable again.
Copyright 2023 Ira Chernus
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