- Raised a girl, became a boy, and now? From navigating public bathrooms, to choosing what to wear, Tyler Ford on living as a genderless person
It's kind of strange how weird people get about kids' genders. If someone has a girl, "THE ROOM HAS TO BE PINK AND ALL OF THEIR STUFF HAS TO BE PINK AND THEY HAVE TO LIKE THESE THINGS." If it's a boy, "EVERYTHING HAS TO BE BLUE AND THEY HAVE TO LIKE THIS, THIS, AND THIS." My brother had a boy and my mom keeps saying things like, "Now you guys have to go do boy things together like camp and fish." It's, like, camping's cool; why can't the girl go too? Then people start getting all defensive if a boy picks something pink or "girly" and start playing with it. They go over there and say, "Oh that's a girl's toy. Go play with some boy stuff," and try to take the toy away. If a girl starts playing in the dirt or wants to build something, they kind of insinuate that she should be playing with dolls or something. If I had a girl, and she wanted to build a deck with me, then I'd be sitting there teaching her how to hammer in nails and use a drill. If I had a boy and they wanted to learn how to sew or cook, then I'd try my hardest to find someone to help them (not because I'm not allowed to do those things, just because I don't know how to do them). If someone stopped my kid from doing something, because "That's mean for x gender," I'd give them hell and they'd never be around my kid again. When it comes to hobbies and stuff, gender really doesn't matter. If a kid wants to do or like something, they should be able to; it doesn't matter what gender that things is "supposed" to be reserved for. That's why there's a lack of male teachers. That's why there's a lack of female programmers. Society spends too much time on segregating everything for absolutely no benefit. Just mind your own business and don't intervene unless someone's harming other people or themselves.
Tyler was Recently on PBS Digital Studio's First Person, which I recommend to anyone.