you've been assigned!

            OK, maybe it’s because I’m a writer and words count, but I was listening to CBC radio recently as they broadcast a story about transgendering. Then it happened: referring to “being assigned with a gender at birth”. Excuse me? Assigned? By whom? Who did this assigning? How did they get voted into this auspicious role?
            Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some fuddy-duddy up in arms about transgendering. I know I’m lucky to have been born a guy, quite happy with that, and never questioned it. I truly can’t imagine the angst of someone being born in a gender they don’t feel fits. Must be truly debilitating.
            No, my argument is simply with this term that is increasingly bandied about with the subject: the gender we were assigned at birth. Again I ask: just who did this assigning? And who put them in charge? And because I’m curious about the training one must have for this role, how do I meet up with them for an interview for my next book?
            C’mon folks: science tells us the XY system of chromosomes and genes of our fathers determines our gender. (Mind you, I can tell you that on the occasions when I was busy fathering my two sons, their future  gender was far from my mind!) We are not assigned a gender. We are created. Short, sweet, ‘n simple!
            In our English language, we’ve got 26 letters to play with and a bunch of grammar guidelines: let’s try using them correctly. Being assigned with a gender at birth is just not playing by the rules.
            So endeth the rant!

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