David Bowie courtesy of google.com
LGBTQ? Ask the web questions about most subjects and it will provide a clue. (Click) I thought I was up on my alphabet until I came across the term pangender. (Click) Scratching my head, I paused to wonder what some cake baker in Colorado would make of that. (Click) More importantly, I wondered how pangender differed from bisexual. (Click)
A few days later, an article by Angela Johnson appeared on the web to solve my quandary. (Click) Pangender, she writes, refers to people who believe gender plays no role in their sexuality. “…they don’t have a preference for one gender over the another.”
Well… that explanation sounds like bisexual to me, though it smacks of indifference. But no, Johnson assures me, pangender people take bisexual a step further. They “can be attracted to people who identify as female, male, androgynous, transgender, or intersex.” Intersex? I google the word. ”Intersex people are previously referred to as hermaphrodites, ‘congenital eunuchs,’ or congenitally ‘frigid.’” (Click)
By now, I’m drowning in alphabet soup. Then, a line gets thrown to me. For a moment all seems clear. “It should be noted that younger generations are likely to be more open to the concept of love and attraction beyond the gender binary.” I should have stopped reading there. I didn’t. Next, I learn almost 60 gender options exist to choose from. (Click) I shake my head like a dog with water lodged in its ear. That’s almost as many choices as Kama Sutra positions. (Click)
Okay, you young kids, listen up. There are two genders in the human species: male and female. (And maybe a little grey area.) But two are the necessary building blocks to make a human. That’s the truth I’m clinging to like a rat to a rotten plank from the Titanic. I’m not going to memorize names for 58 coupling options. Insensitive of me? You bet. I’m old. I forget where I leave my shopping cart in the grocery store.
Or, we could compromise. Let’s add one more label to the alphabet soup. I choose NOMBA? (None of My Business Anyway)
