20160522 (identity)

Just growing up is hard enough. If society is rejecting, make some space in your heart for the different.

Physicians tell us incidence of 

Ambiguous genitalia in newborns

Is considerably higher than most

Would guess. Which spooks a lot

Of people. After all it’s sex, right?

And just about nothing spooks 

Americans at least as much as

Sex—even the absolutely straight

From-the-book Ozzie-and-Harriet

Sex. Just watch the faces of your

Friends when you raise the topic

Of catching their parents in

Flagrante delicto. There’s always 

That creepy factor with imagining

One’s parents doing “it” (which

They must have done once else

No “you” to wince at the thought).

So for any (and I hate to use the

Word) deviations from what we 

Think is the norm there’s that 

Additional reaction—aversion

At first, followed fairly soon 

Afterward by driving curiosity

Few will admit to. If I had a 

Nickel for everybody who’s 

Googled images of ambiguous

Genitalia I could drop the blog

And schedule scads of 

Restoration contractors and

Still have plenty left over to

Leave my heirs a tidy golden

Egg. I don’t think scientists 

Have seriously begun to identify

All the factors in the genesis

Of our various junks, much

Less explained how some 

With textbook-perfect parts

Still don’t end up correspondingly 

Gendered psychologically. This

May puzzle us for generations, but

Do we really need to know all

That before we treat people 

Empathetically, lovingly? Of 

Course not. Clearing away 

Ignorance will help stop the 

Spooky. Allowing people to

Be who they are rather than

Requiring them to fit our

Primitive concepts of what

They must be will help break 

Down barriers. The different

Are not so entirely different.

They share our needs for 

Respect, appreciation, and 

Our capacities for giving the 

Same. Perhaps not every 

Parent can easily accept their

Different child, but it’s the place

To begin. It’s the child’s first

And most formative society. For

Them to be able to manage in

A judgmental and rejecting

Larger society may well be

Impossible if they are not

Accepted and recognized in

Their primary family. Those

Quaking in their boots about

Encountering sexually

Different fellow human beings

Are not getting the fear from 

The other. Their fear is from 

Within themselves.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016