Rife with pitfalls despite one's best intentions, the subject of gender identity is becoming increasingly relevant in and out of the public restroom. It's difficult to tell anymore whether we have a legitimate divide on ethics or if we simply thrive on lambasting those with practical concerns that differ from our own. Optimistically I choose to believe most fall somewhere in the middle, regardless if the most vocal of us insist on drawing lines in sand. Those who have any business in the matter seem to share the same desire at the end of the day, privacy.
Naturally one of the significant goals on the progressive express is removing the traditional binary categorizations we use to define people. In many ways these distinctions have betrayed our privacy all along, allowing others to prejudicially categorize us and facilitating sexism. Although, how else would someone justifiably take action based on romantic feelings if the sexual orientation of their attractor were a mystery to them? Chris is careful who she allows to get close to her, turning down ill-fitting prospects with haste. Unfortunately she judges by the same criteria used to judge her and may unknowingly reject someone with expectations inline with her own.
Sexual orientation is an intensely private matter regardless how many casual jokes are dependent on assumptions about one's present company. Relationships based on non-sexual connections like common interests and shared perspectives statistically last longer than those motivated by pregnancy or an open space in the trophy case. How then do we reconcile the two, when sexuality is so closely linked to a general affinity for another person? To be blunt we've never taken kindly to the unprovoked, unsolicited, aggressive action of "whipping it out" and award sex offender status for those moronically brazen enough to do so, but to his/her credit we've all made a decision with ample evidence to support it.
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