The world has not improved in many way since I was a teen. Mostly the future I had hoped for mostly hasn’t come to pass and in many ways we have slipped backwards. But (there is always a but isn’t there?) there is at least one way the world has improved. Alternative sexualities and genders are now far more accepted than they have ever been. Not that there isn’t a long way to go. Far too many people just don’t like change. It makes the world hard for them to understand and they have to learn new things and mostly older people don’t want to have to learn new things. They like everything the way it used to be where everyone fit into nice, neat little boxes.
Sexuality and gender are not that simple. As with so many things in life they exist on a sliding scale and all of us need to learn to accept that people can be whatever they choose to be. Really, what harm does it cause to call people as they wish? We call people by different identifiers all the time, why should this be any different?
You might well be asking, why I am writing about this? And that is a valid question. While I have long been a supporter of people using whatever pronouns and identifiers they like, I have never had any skin in the game. Until now.
My teen grandchild has come out as non binary. And I couldn’t be more proud. That they feel safe and comfortable to be who they feel is a wonderful thing. It speaks highly of their mother, that she has raised children who are free to be who they are. They are both amazing people as are my son and daughter. So it seems that maybe I might have done at least one thing semi right.
I have always done my best to make sure that I refer to people how they wish to be called, and just because it is more complicated doesn’t mean that we all shouldn’t do it. How I behave isn’t going to change but I will be less forgiving of those that don’t make the effort. I am sure I will get it wrong myself but I will do my very best to keep that to a minimum. So now I am the proud Grampster to an amazing Grandenby.
We’ve come a long way baby, as the old ad used to say. But we have even longer to go.
Michael
