Gender identity by Jessica Halem

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)
Gender identity

Jessica Halem
Published April 7, 2006.
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Chicago -- I want to applaud the Chicago Tribune and Tribune staff reporter Bonnie Miller Rubin for taking on such an important, often invisible and sometimes volatile issue in both the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and straight world ("Transgender movement emerging from shadows," Page 1, April 3). Especially important in the piece was the focus on a FtM person. In the lesbian community, more and more lesbians are partnering with or becoming FtMs, tranguys, genderqueers and other masculine forms of female bodies (just like lesbians always have!).

But gender identity isn't just the business of the gays. Everyone has a gender and everyone has the right to question the pink or blue hats placed on their heads at birth.

As a lifelong radical feminist, I was taught to be whatever I wanted and say whatever I needed and not blindly follow the role for women society sets out for us. I'm proud to be in a world in which some women say they'd like to be men or some stripe of masculinity that the pink hat just can't contain. Their trailblazing makes more room for everyone.