Port: The war on good manners
MINOT, N.D. — I have to admit that, on a personal level, I don’t understand transgenderism.
I have never felt uncomfortable with my gender, or sexuality, and it seems strange that others would. Or that they would live as though they have no gender at all.
But a part of being an enlightened human, I think, is understanding that my lived experience isn’t universal. My sexuality, and my gender, weren’t choices I made. They’re just parts of who I am. To believe that another person’s expressed sexuality or gender is somehow contrived and objectionable because it doesn’t match up with my own seems like the worst sort of solipsism.
Our nation was founded on the ideas of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What I’ve come to learn, as I’ve aged, is that there are many paths to happiness, and not all of them have to look like mine. But I am obliged, I think, as a citizen of a society that aspires to liberty, to make reasonable accommodations for others on their paths.
Perhaps especially if their paths have more obstacles than mine does.
