The Gender Binary
By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
Insisting that boys are boys and girls are girls, Arizona lawmakers are moving to block state agencies from giving a third option for those who identify as neither.
HB2294 would put in statute that any document issued by a state agency, board, commission or department that now is required to indicate an individual’s sex may only show that person as male or female.
The measure was approved this past week by the House Committee on Government and Elections, with only Republicans in favor, despite pleas from multiple parents who said those choices do not define who their children are. It now awaits a vote of the full House.
Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, said he believes there currently are no forms that provide an alternative. Instead, he called it “kind of a precautionary thing,” given that other states, including California, do allow that option.
“Historically, what happens in California is like a tidal wave,” Fillmore said. “It just kind of rolls our way.”
But unbeknownst to Fillmore, that already is happening: The Arizona Department of Transportation does provide an option for driver licenses to have an X instead of M or F where “sex” is listed.
That, however requires an applicant to present a government document — presumably from another state — showing their gender as non-binary. It is not an option for an Arizonan simply seeking a change in designation.
Fillmore said all his measure does is recognize reality.
“There are two biological sexes,” he said, regardless of how people identify themselves.
Not true, testified Erica Keppler, telling lawmakers that about 1.3 out of every 1,000 children born are “intersex,” with “ambiguous” visible sex organs.
“It used to be they were assigned a sex at birth, sometimes with surgical alteration, often to tragic results when later on they did identify with the sex assigned to them,” Keppler said.
And Kristin Downing said it’s not just about those children. Downing told lawmakers she drove up from Tucson to tell them about her “amazing 15-year-old child” who is nonbinary.
“When they came out about three years ago our whole community rallied around us,” she said.
“My child is loved and celebrated for who they are,” Downing continued. “However, every time we have to fill out paperwork, my child does not feel supported because the fact is the state of Arizona only has male and female as options on a form.”
And that, Downing said, will become even more obvious when her child goes for a driver’s license and will have to choose a sex that does not accurately reflect gender.
Megan Mogan, another Tucson mother, had her own story.
“From the moment our non-binary child could walk, could talk, could play, could dress themselves, it was very clear to us that they did not conform to typical gender standards, even though all they saw under their own roof was pretty stereotypical gender standards,” she said.
Mogan said that did require a learning curve, even among her own parents in their 70s.
“What we learned is that gender is very nuanced,” she said. “It’s not what we grew up knowing.”
Fillmore said people can still identify as what they believe they are. But that doesn’t make it true.
“I identify as a little, short, fat, obnoxious guy,” he said.
