This week, I was quite pleased to read that Norrie had become the first person in Australia to recieve a sex non-specified identification document. It seemed like the world was finally moving towards coming to it’s senses re gender identity. And then it wasn’t. Yesterday, I heard a brief mention on the Triple J news about how Norrie’s document had been deemed invalid and consequently withdrawn.
What terrible news! What I want to know is why, if the law does not allow for it, can’t NSW (and the rest of the damn country) change the stupid law to make it allowed? Why does someone’s gender (or lack there of) identity really matter to anyone else? Seriously? It’s not like Norrie or any other androgynous person is going to suddenly force anyone else to be androgynous or get a sex change, or be gay, or be a-sexual, or … I don’t know, eat bananas or whatever said hypothetical people don’t want to do. The point is that Norrie’s (and everyone else’s) gender identity is THEIRS and hurts no one. So, why the fuss? Why the rabid need to force people into boxes in which they don’t fit? Why can’t we all just sit in our own respective, comfortable boxes and NOT BOTHER ANYONE ELSE ABOUT THEIR BOXES? Live and let live, etc, etc, etc? We don’t all have to love Norrie, we don’t have to be their friend if we don’t want to. But we do have a responsibility to allow them their own happiness as long as it does not infringe on others … and a gender non-specific legal document certainly infringes on no one. The world would be a pretty boring place if we all fit neatly into our predefined boxes.
I wish Norrie luck in fighting this and I hope that one day society will finally grow the fuck up. Let’s burn the boxes and just be ourselves.
A triangle trying to squeeze through a circle
He tried to cut me so I’d fit
And doesn’t that sound familiar? Doesn’t that hit too close to home?
Doesn’t that make you shiver; the way things could’ve gone?
And doesn’t it feel peculiar when everyone wants a little more?
And so that I do remember to never go that far,
Could you leave me with a scar?
Scar — Missy Higgins
* English needs a better non specific gender pronoun
The Ausmerican 