When it comes to any social movement, few phrases have rung in my ear like “think of the children.”
When Proposition 8 came to affront in California in 2008, an ad campaign may have swayed the citizens of California to conclude that marriage should be solely between a man and a woman. Maybe those voters sleep better at night knowing that they protected their children from a terrible and apocalyptic onslaught of … something.
OK, I don't have the slightest idea of what parents are really trying to protect their children from here that’s so dangerous.
Recently, a close friend of mine wrote an article in the Arizona Daily Wildcat about Senate Bill 1432, also called the "bathroom bill."
This bill would mean that if someone were to enter a women’s or men’s restroom and their birth certificate states that their sex is other than that listed on the sign, then they could be charged with disorderly conduct. It got me thinking: What are these congressmen and women so afraid of that they felt compelled to draft this bill?
After some research (and looking at comment sections of similar columns), I’ve discovered that it may indeed be parents trying to protect their children from a big, bad, gender-confusing monster.
This monster wreaks havoc in the dead of night, slashing the simple naïveté of everything that lies between “once upon a time” and “happily ever after.” It gnaws on the bones that keep a Parthenon of ancient gender archetypes upright, and drips from its mouth every obscenity and expletive that no amount of cupped hands could protect from tiny eardrums. Worst of all, in its final form, it hovers and casts a shadow so dark that wide-eyed children ask their parents, “Why?” — a question that some parents do not feel equipped to answer.
Parents hold both the antidote and the vaccine in this case, though I’d recommend the vaccine (as most physicians probably would in the case of actual viruses).
Let’s say you’re proactive enough where your child hasn’t been tainted by the normative idea that gender is one-size-fits-half. I’m not saying sitting little Timmy down to discuss the intricacies of trans* rights (the rights of anyone who does not wholly identify with the sex with which they were born) is the way to go, but there are always opportunities to ensure your child understands that gender does not always fit in a neat little box.
I won’t tell you how to parent, but I will tell you how to be a decent human being that happens to impart behavior onto future decent human beings. Just because you and your significant other — and most of the people in your lives — have successful experiences being conventionally male or female does not mean that those who are transgender are incorrect, broken or anything other than healthy. It’s time to accept that gender identity is more than skin-deep, and that’s OK.
Once you accept it, your children will follow just as easily as they probably follow your favorite sports team for no other reason than it’s what you love.
If you feel that these gender roles have already been enforced, then good news from your friendly neighborhood neuroscience student: Your children have the potential to be geniuses of tolerance, provided that you set them straight.
Reach the columnist at aameschko@asu.edu or follow her at @alishameschkow
