A transgender person is just as normal. It’s hard to believe in 2013 some people still don’t understand that.
Take, for example, a newspaper editorial that asked “how far are we going to allow for personal identity issues that collide head-on with public norms …”
The statement responds to the story of a Saskatoon transgender bride’s discrimination complaint against a bridal shop that refused service based on a gender. The editorial and bridal shop appear to come to the archaic conclusion that a transgender person is not normal and therefore can be treated differently.
The opinion piece continues “are businesses to be held to any and all standards that are demanded in spite of obvious difficulties.”
Perhaps we should ask that question from a different perspective: Should a business that traditionally serves men be allowed to refuse service to women?
In 1955 you could have said “yes” and had been aligned with the social norms of the day. Our social norms now conclude that gender discrimination is wrong.
Discriminating against someone because their gender doesn’t match what was assigned to them at birth might be more complicated than the man-versus-woman gender debates of yesterday. It’s still gender discrimination.
So editorial writers and bridal shop owners alike should be aware gender discrimination of any kind may collide head on with the public norms of 2013.
