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But it’s not bigotry to believe that there are 2 genders.

theossuary 8y ago
This is like saying there are only two types of people, those who are aggressive and those who are passive (Alphas and betas). It completely misses the fact that most (all?) things in nature lie on a spectrum, just like gender. Some people are masculine, some are effeminate. There are effeminate men, and masculine women. There are biological males who see themselves as women socially, or physiologically; and the same is true of some biological females. At the end of the day, it has no impact on you how others express themselves, so who cares? It reminds me of this: http://blog.angry-dad.com/2015/06/psychiatrists-and-hair-dryer-incident.html http://blog.angry-dad.com/2015/06/psychiatrists-and-hair-dry... If calling a somebody "she", and allowing her to do with her body what she wants, improves their quality of life significantly, who cares? Who are you to stand in the way of them making their life worth living? What really surprised me though are the people on HN who normally pride themselves on having informed opinions, talking about this without even reading the wiki page on it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity
- lawnchair_larry 8y ago
  No, it isn’t like saying that. I don’t know why you are making a case for calling somebody a he or she in accordance with their preference or suggesting I’m getting in the way of anything. That is not inconsistent with the belief that there are 2 genders, and I did not say I have a problem with respecting anyone’s preference to be called one or the other. I didn’t even say I personally believe that there are 2 genders. I simply said that believing there are 2 genders is not bigotry.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
beat 8y ago
But it is bigotry to use the combination of believing in two genders and authority in a given situation to cause harm to those who aren't easily categorized by said belief.
- lawnchair_larry 8y ago
  It can be, but there is often broad disagreement on this topic over what is harm and what direction that harm flows.
  - beat 8y ago
    "Broad disagreement" doesn't mean "Both sides are equally right and the truth is somewhere in the middle". Sometimes, people are just plain wrong.
    - lawnchair_larry 8y ago
      Ain’t that the truth.

This is like saying there are only two types of people, those who are aggressive and those who are passive (Alphas and betas). It completely misses the fact that most (all?) things in nature lie on a spectrum, just like gender. Some people are masculine, some are effeminate. There are effeminate men, and masculine women. There are biological males who see themselves as women socially, or physiologically; and the same is true of some biological females. At the end of the day, it has no impact on you how others express themselves, so who cares? It reminds me of this: http://blog.angry-dad.com/2015/06/psychiatrists-and-hair-dryer-incident.html http://blog.angry-dad.com/2015/06/psychiatrists-and-hair-dry... If calling a somebody "she", and allowing her to do with her body what she wants, improves their quality of life significantly, who cares? Who are you to stand in the way of them making their life worth living? What really surprised me though are the people on HN who normally pride themselves on having informed opinions, talking about this without even reading the wiki page on it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity

lawnchair_larry 8y ago
No, it isn’t like saying that. I don’t know why you are making a case for calling somebody a he or she in accordance with their preference or suggesting I’m getting in the way of anything. That is not inconsistent with the belief that there are 2 genders, and I did not say I have a problem with respecting anyone’s preference to be called one or the other. I didn’t even say I personally believe that there are 2 genders. I simply said that believing there are 2 genders is not bigotry.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

beat 8y ago

But it is bigotry to use the combination of believing in two genders and authority in a given situation to cause harm to those who aren't easily categorized by said belief.

lawnchair_larry 8y ago
It can be, but there is often broad disagreement on this topic over what is harm and what direction that harm flows.
- beat 8y ago
  "Broad disagreement" doesn't mean "Both sides are equally right and the truth is somewhere in the middle". Sometimes, people are just plain wrong.
  - lawnchair_larry 8y ago
    Ain’t that the truth.