WHICH BOX DO YOU CHECK?
SOME STATES ARE OFFERING A NONBINARY OPTION
This article from the New York Times on May 29 addresses an issue that all educators must consider -- nonbinary gender pronouns. If you teach, this is a good summary of the issues we face as the concept of diversity continues to expand.
"As nonbinary teenagers push for driver’s licenses that reflect their identity, a fraught debate over the nature of gender has arrived in the nation’s statehouses."
"BOSTON — Ever since El Martinez started asking to be called by the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” in the ninth grade, they have fielded skepticism in a variety of forms and from a multitude of sources about what it means to identify as nonbinary.
"There are faculty advisers on El’s theater crew who balk at using “they” for one person; classmates at El’s public school on the outskirts of Boston who insist El can’t be “multiple people”; and commenters on El’s social media feeds who dismiss nonbinary gender identities like androgyne (a combination of masculine and feminine), agender (the absence of gender) and gender-fluid (moving between genders) as lacking a basis in biology.
"Even for El’s supportive parents, conceiving of gender as a multidimensional sprawl has not been so easy to grasp. Nor has El’s suggestion that everyone state their pronouns gained much traction.
"So last summer, when the Massachusetts State Legislature became one of the first in the nation to consider a bill to add an “X” option for nonbinary genders to the “M” and “F” on the state driver’s license, El, 17, was less surprised than some at the maneuver that effectively killed it."
Read more at the link below.
Retrieved online May 30, 2019, at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/us/nonbinary-drivers-licenses.html
SOME STATES ARE OFFERING A NONBINARY OPTION
This article from the New York Times on May 29 addresses an issue that all educators must consider -- nonbinary gender pronouns. If you teach, this is a good summary of the issues we face as the concept of diversity continues to expand.
"As nonbinary teenagers push for driver’s licenses that reflect their identity, a fraught debate over the nature of gender has arrived in the nation’s statehouses."
"BOSTON — Ever since El Martinez started asking to be called by the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” in the ninth grade, they have fielded skepticism in a variety of forms and from a multitude of sources about what it means to identify as nonbinary.
"There are faculty advisers on El’s theater crew who balk at using “they” for one person; classmates at El’s public school on the outskirts of Boston who insist El can’t be “multiple people”; and commenters on El’s social media feeds who dismiss nonbinary gender identities like androgyne (a combination of masculine and feminine), agender (the absence of gender) and gender-fluid (moving between genders) as lacking a basis in biology.
"Even for El’s supportive parents, conceiving of gender as a multidimensional sprawl has not been so easy to grasp. Nor has El’s suggestion that everyone state their pronouns gained much traction.
"So last summer, when the Massachusetts State Legislature became one of the first in the nation to consider a bill to add an “X” option for nonbinary genders to the “M” and “F” on the state driver’s license, El, 17, was less surprised than some at the maneuver that effectively killed it."
Read more at the link below.
Retrieved online May 30, 2019, at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/us/nonbinary-drivers-licenses.html
El Martinez, 17, at home in Massachusetts. Martinez wrote to state representatives requesting a gender-neutral option for identity documents. Credit Tony Luong for The New York Times
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