Don't Know / Not Sure

Once upon a time, I used the phrase in a context I swore would get me in trouble.

It involved a survey I filled out on sexual health and in the demographic information the respondent was asked about their gender.  Besides the usual male and female they also had FTM, MTF, genderqueer and a few others that I don't recall.  I quipped, "Where's 'Don't know / Not sure?'"

Immediately after saying that I feared that I would be subject to a tirade along the lines of, "How DARE you even THINK about making such a comment on someone's gender you,  you,  you MICROAGRESSOR!

And someone is probably saying that as they read this.

Anyway, the response I actually got was, "Hmmmm, maybe we should put that choice in next time."

And there will probably be someone who will be happy about having their gender identity acknowledged because they are still figuring it out.

So what brought this on?

Well, I was reading another article about kids who do not identify with their biological gender.  This one had a theme of these kids needing puberty delaying medications to keep from going through the trauma of puberty until such time as they can start hormone therapy.  I'm passing on that debate, but I did notice something.

All the kids in the article (and many like them) were Anglo.

Aren't there kids of other ethnicities dealing with the same set of issues?  Yeah, I know the answer is, "Of course there are," but the media doesn't seem to portray their struggles.

So hopefully I did my part in noting the lack of diversity on this one.