Acceptance.
By: Siddharth Jayadev
Tags: LGBT Rights, Acceptance, Transgender, Homophobia

I need to get this out of my system for once and for all. I believe every problem in this world has a pretty straightforward solution that we tend to overlook. I thought about diving into several topics today, and finally, I decided to noodle around the issues which plaque to the concept of gender in this age before realizing that in a broader picture, one simple step can lead to a better future: Acceptance.

It is no coincidence we have acceptance as the last stage of grief. It involves coming to terms with what has happened or occurred to us or around us and living with the new reality.

Acceptance is the central part of the gender debate we tend to overlook. In many forms, lack of acceptance is exactly what tends to cause differences among people, groups, countries and communities. Accept the fact that it is fine to be different. Accept the diversity around you and not just stop there, learn to celebrate it. This not only stops at diversity in race or culture, but also includes gender. We must look at how mere acceptance makes us perceive the dilemmas arising from gender, in a different light.

Let’s start with a number of basic things that we need to accept around the turn of the decade. Let’s start with the two basic genders. We need to accept the fact that men and women are different from each other. We need to accept the fact that irrespective of their differences, both the genders have the right, and deserve to be treated with respect in their professional, social, personal or economic aspect.

An integral aspect to any form of science is that it is reinventing and rewriting itself. In the process, a lot of our previous information we considered to be the absolute universal truth is challenged and it is important that we accept and make peace with the new facts. Modernization revolves around the fact that how much do we accept this new information. With growing knowledge and the general public accepting the fact there is a third gender, we must too, for the least, accept it. Acceptance, that’s all I ask for. You need not side nor support nor agree with the community, but you must accept their existence. Discrimination starts when people do not even accept their existence and further, force their opinions on others.

Now, let us look at the technical advantages of people accepting these facts. A majority of the gender wars or arguments related to it tend to disappear away. At their workplace, no man will have an objection when a woman gets paid as much as him because he has accepted the fact that she is equal to him and hence must have the same paycheck. A judge in Alabama accepts the fact that what a woman wants to do to her body is her own choice and may vote ‘nay’ to the bill which wants to criminalize abortion in the state.

A man sitting in his living room accepts the fact that a transgender individual is as equal as any other citizen and has as much of the right to serve in the army as anyone else. Moreover, he accepts the fact that his opinion as to who gets to be on the front lines does not matter as long as he is on his couch judging other’s qualifications to be a part of the military.

There it is. Most of the world accepts that their views can be different from what the majority thinks, they accept that they can peacefully coexist with disagreement and that they do not need to impose their opinions as laws. This is going to be the start of peaceful coexistence and a utopian society.