document updated 15 years ago, on Oct 11, 2010
I like the word "liberation".
- It mirrors women's liberation, gay liberation, black liberation, etc, which are obviously good. It would be good to talk of transgender liberation.
- For people who don't grok what "genderqueer" means, alternative terms are "gender gifted" and "gender liberated". They make it clear that the label doesn't describe any single point on the gender spectrum, nor does it suggest that someone avoids the parts of the spectrum where "normal" people hang out. Rather, it describes a mindset — that someone who has given themselves the freedom to wander across the spectrum whenever they want.
- "Gender liberated" also suggests that it's distinct from gender abolitionism. Rather than suggesting that gender has no importance, it recognizes that gender does have importance, but that gender is no longer so sacrosanct that it constricts the individual. There have been other strictures that society has done away with in the past — the caste system, strict adherence to religion under penalty of death, etc. The goal of removing these strictures was not to suggest that people can/should stop thinking about them (yesterday's caste system has turned into today's socioeconomic disparities; religion permeates politics; women's lib and the civil rights movement have made huge progress but still have a ways to go), but rather, that they shouldn't needlessly or completely constrict the individual.