I'm in Edmonton for the International Fringe Festival, the largest in North America and second in size after the (enormous) Edinburgh Fringe. Since recently discovering improv and stage performance myself, I'm fully invested in the form as a new creative direction and have come to the festival to seek it out.
The annual Fringe Festival is a pretty big summer tourist draw for Edmonton, which might not otherwise be all that captivating a city. It's pretty enough, bisected by the Saskatchewan River, but without the Fringe I'd probably see all that's worth seeing inside a couple of days. For the Fringe I'm here over a week, in which time I'll see twenty-one shows.
I bought a transit card as I arrived at the airport and registered it online so I could top it up. The registration requires a few mandatory details, such as name, email address... and gender.
Gender? It's a transit card; what could there possibly be to distinguish men's transit style from women's? This isn't 1965; asking for gender de rigeur on clerical forms long ago lost social acceptability. Irrelevantly requesting gender had, in the 70s & 80s, rightly been bumped off in the spirit of equality. What has happened?
Ah... but they're being "socially conscious," aren't they? The choices are not M/F. The selection (remember, mandatory) is comprehensive:
- Woman
- Man
- Non-binary
- Transgender
- Two-Spirit
- Another
- No Answer
- Unspecified
Eight choices. Because identity politics permits us to return to 1965. If we track what you are then we can discriminate between you. "You're a Transgender; why do you use transit?" Not only is it offensive to ask in the first place, but it is pointless; the absurdity of the choices insults the intelligence.
What is the transit-relevant difference between "Transgender" and "Non-binary"? Not the health differences of intersex or the social differences of identity or the psychological differences between them; I want to know what is the transit-related difference. What is it?
What value is there in collecting—as mandatory—the answer "Another" vs "Unspecified"? I have no issue identifying myself on an appropriate form as a Man, but I could not entertain this question.
I submitted "No Answer".
Let me be clear. I have no horse in this race, but I'm a civil liberties advocate and have always fought for the equal rights of everyone in society, which equality inevitably means tending to those in minority, including those identifying by gender. The primary guidance is that they should not be discriminated against.
Why doesn't this transit form ask for the religion of the card holder? Where are the choices:
- Jew
- Muslim
- Christian
- Hindu
- Buddhist
- Other?
The transit company doesn't ask because society wouldn't abide that information being collected for a transit pass. It would appear discriminatory; why would religion need tracking? If this were America, I'd be concerned about ICE pulling that data. Putting certain information on a database is profiling, and that can be abused.
So why should gender be treated any differently?
Identity politics is a double-edged sword. To name things creates awareness, but labels discriminate. It's a minefield that those who wield don't understand.
