Okay so I'm home sick and I just read this article about facebook's new gender options and found that it did a pretty good job of explaining the difference between gender and sex, defining some of the terms, and in the beginning it even gave you a glimpse into what dysphoria is like. But I realize that articles like these are created to answer questions that people are too scared to ask. I get that asking questions can be intimidating and make you feel bad or, well, stupid (I mean, when I'm in math class I feel pretty inadequate) but if you don't ask questions, you make mistakes and could offend someone.
I, for one, love it when people ask me questions about gender or sexuality in attempt to understand. It gives me hope that humanity does have people who care and want to avoid making others feel horrible about themselves (because high school seems to be all about belittlement). But I understand that there are those extreme gender non-comformists and "angry lesbians" who call everyone "cis-scum"(I hate that term so much) and tell us we're all ignorant (but how are we supposed to learn if you're just going to yell as us every time we ask?). Some people feel like these are the people we encounter most, though in reality, these are the ones you remember most clearly. The world is actually filled (I hope) with people willing to explain and answer reasonable questions.
So I wanted to open this up and ask you guys to ask questions in the comments. This will prompt me to post more often and also help you learn and feel more comfortable around those who don't fit into the gender binary or have a different sexual orientation. I will answer to the best of my abilities, but be aware that some of my answers will be based on personal experience and my understanding and may not apply to everyone.
I also want to address preferred pronouns. My significant other recently chose a gender-neutral name (and then never told me that they were actually starting to use it but there was a good reason behind that) and has been using gender neutral pronouns since last year. But to this day I still hear their friends using the wrong pronouns and it irritates me that they don't even seem to be trying. And I get called "she" all the time. My brother even had the balls to tell me that I'm "technically a girl". Granted, he's nine so I forgave him and explained that, no, I'm not "technically a girl", I'm biologically female and technically gender fluid(**). I've been trying to get people to use the xe pronouns when referring to me and it seems to have had no affect on anyone other than my significant other.
I want people to always ask if someone has preferred pronouns and make a conscious effort to use those pronouns but I realize that this seems unobtainable. Also, it's really awkward asking people for their preferred pronouns, especially when they have no idea what in heck preferred pronouns are. Pronouns are the words we use when referring to something (such as he, she, it) and preferred pronouns are what someone has chosen for themselves in order to feel at home in their bodies and that comply with their identities. Calling me "she" would be wrong (as I am not a she) and offensive, and usually gives me a sense of dysphoria(I will probably explain this in a different post. I guess ask me about it).
In my last blog thing (the really offensive, ignorant, and uneducated one that I made when I was still figuring myself out), my posts were excessively long and I'm trying to stray away from that so I'm going to end this here even though this is somewhat confusing. I'll clear things up in future posts.
(**)I want to make mention that while I identify as gender-fluid, I'm still actually gender questioning. Gender-fluid is the term I found that relates most closely to my identity but I still find that it doesn't fit me perfectly.
I guess this whole post is basically saying please ask me questions so I can help you (and gender non-conforming/not heterosexual people) out.
Also, I'll still post even if I don't get asked questions, they'll just be random and sporadic.
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