“That’s Made Up!”
What do you do when someone doubts your identity or sexuality?
As more gender identities, sexualities and pronouns come into existence, the most common rebuttal I’ve seen on my journey through the internet, over many sites, is the decision that neo-pronouns are made up. Or a gender identity is made up. Or a sexuality is made up. Always with the underlying tone of ‘because I haven’t heard of these, you must be jumping on the bandwagon,’ or ‘these aren’t valid because I feel you’ve made them up.’
How did the community go from wanting to validate people to suddenly becoming gatekeepers if you're valid enough to take labels that give you a sense of identity and put terms on your identity? That’s another topic. I instead want to focus on two intermingling topics: how to handle this from both sides of the page.
“That’s made up!!” pt. 1
This is aimed at the person making out that something is made up — honestly, does it matter to you? Is it going to kill you to give another human being respect? You can think something is made up all you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that another human being — with real feelings, emotions, and mental health — has told you something very personal and intimate. They’ve become very vulnerable. So keep your thoughts on that line to yourself and give…
