Misgendering....?

Is this even possible?

In Canada we are on the verge of being fined and/or jailed for ‘misgendering’ someone.

Most trans people I have spoken with accept there are two sexes, but claim there are many genders. And, gender overrides biological sex.

Let’s review this:

1. There are two sexes.

2. There are many genders.

3. Gender is what makes the person.

Here is where it gets tricky.

4. It doesn’t matter what one looks like on the outside. One can be a delicate small female, but ‘she’ might be, inside that is, a he. ‘He’ is misgendered if I refer to her as a she, since she isn’t one, by gender. By sex, she is a ‘she’, but that isn’t really ‘him’ (it gets confusing).

5. A large hairy muscular man might very well be a woman. He might look exactly like the stereotypical Marlboro Man. He could look like Mr T. But we should pity the fool who doesn’t call him Mrs T.

   This identifies the problem:
   

   If sex is not significant, and gender is, but gender cannot be determined except by a declaration from the person as to what his/her gender is, as it cannot be determined by any sort of visual cue, then how can I possibly misgender someone intentionally….as that is the sin according to the legislation?

I have seen video clips and seen in person at least one hissy fit being thrown by a transing male that he has been misgendered. The incident I saw in person had an obviously BIOLOGICAL male, wearing dangling ear rings, and a pink mini-skirt. So, what is he? And, how would I know? Since gender CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED BY SUCH OBVIOUS CUES AS MALE OR FEMALE SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS. Or clothing.

To complicate things further, apparently gender is ‘fluid’! It can change on a whim, or in a different situation.

(And, by the way, I am in favour of this I think. You got heavy furniture to move? Yeah, I’m a woman. I don’t carry heavy furniture. That’s a man’s job. You got a big plate of wings, a beer, and a playoff hockey game is on? It turns out, I’m a guy!)

How then can any legislation say someone has ‘misgendered’ someone else? Since there are no visual certainties one can rely on.

What can we know, 99.99% of the time? Sex. I can say unequivocally almost always whether the big Dude in the pink mini-skirt is a man - biologically. I can’t know his gender. He might be a man who simply likes wearing pink mini-skirts. He might be tragically a woman born into the wrong body. He might be a big hairy woman transing to being a man but she can’t afford to change her wardrobe.

We can’t know anything, can we? Except biological sex.

What then is the rational thing to do? Refer to someone by their obvious biological sex until such time as they tell you what ‘gender’ they are.

That isn’t ‘misgendering’ someone as gender has not been determined. One would simply be correctly referring to them by their sex.