There is no need for temples,
No need for complicated philosophy…
Our own brain, our own heart – is our temple;
The Philosophy is kindness…
Celebrating Diversity
Makabagong
Kasarian
Baby Boy
Baby Girl
When a person is born,
they are immediately classified
as a baby boy or a baby girl..
And everybody is
happy because all is
simple and clear…
Male
There are males
and females..
Female
You have XX for females
Woman
and XY for males..
Man
and we all live happily
ever after..
XY
XX
Turner Syndrome
Only one fully functional X
.. And now we find out there are females who lack
sex-determining chromosome..
Klinefelter’s Syndrome
XXY Syndrome
Or males with
an extra X
chromosome
So without their
choice - they are
also females
biologically..
Swyer Syndrome
XY chromosome pattern in females
Natalie Kirk
who found out
that she had
Swyer
Syndrome
And individuals who have female appearance and female
external genitalia but with an XY chromosome. This occurs
1 in 30,000 people because of gene mutation.
Is it really just either male or female?
Biological Sex…
is based on…
1. CHROMOSOME…. XX or XY (?)…
.. and then sometimes….
….X only.. or XXY also..
2. EXTERNAL GENITALIA…
penis or vagina.. or… both… 
Hermaphrodites
with both male and female reproductive organs
Is it really just either male or female?
Biological Sex…
1. CHROMOSOME…. XX or XY…
….X only.. or XXY also..
2. EXTERNAL GENITALIA…
penis or vagina.. or… both… 
THERE IS MORE DIVERSITY IN
BIOLOGICAL SEX!
.. who says biological sex truly come only in two forms?
Swyer Syndrome
XY chromosome pattern in females
Jeanne Nollman is married with two
adopted teenage children. She is trying
to help other children and their parents
learn and embrace their “gender”
Improved understanding of gender identity led to shift in
medical strategies.. Before, what a child looked like from
the outside and how they were raised would define their
gender. Now, Stanford’s Center for Biomedical Ethics
permit people to choose their gender or be both and its ok.
(intersex)
A Rocket Scientist from Canberra, Australia.
He was born in 1958 and is happily married since 1981.
He fathered a son in 2001.
ZOE BRAIN
As he grew older, his physical features
turned into that of a female’s.
..he said..“How was I to know I was different?”
People like me have been described
as the spawn of Satan.
Well, how does one argue against that?
I can show that I’ve led a
pretty decent life, that I’ve
contributed to society, that
I’ve tried to be a good
parent.
But society, in return, has largely
denied my very existence
Intersex
“But for my partner….having your
husband turn into a woman
before your eyes is shattering.
And what do I tell my son?
This is miraculous, and wonderful,
and hilarious, and terribly tragic too.”
“So, what am I?
After the transition I really wondered about this.
Am I male? Am I female? Am I some sort of mix?
You know, what the heck, at the end of the day ,
I’m me!”
Intersex
a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a
person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that
doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of male or female
- with ambiguous genitalia
-diff. physical conditions
like congenital adrenal
hyperplasia, progestin
induced virilization, androgen
insensitivity syndrome etc.
-..aka.. Hermaphrodites
Hermaphrodite
with both male and female reproductive organs
Hermaphrodite… from a woman…
to
a
man
With both male and female reproductive organs
…so… does sex determine gender ?
Biological sex .. refer to the biological characteristics that
distinguish female from male
… chromosomes, gonads, hormonal mix, genitalia
Gender… refer to the social, psychological, and
cultural definitions of woman / feminine
and man / masculine
… refers to expectations for men & women..
example… feminine woman...
gentle, long hair, soft-spoken, pretty
… masculine man… mascular, aggressive
Gender ….is dictated by Social Institutions
We grow up learning the “masculine” or
“feminine” ways of acting..
Family
Peers
School
Church
Community
Media
State
but… not all females are feminine and not all males are masculine..
…so… does sex determine gender ?
Biological Sex
 physiological characteristics
- chromosomes
- external genitalia
Gender
 socialized gender roles
- attitudes
- behaviors
 biologically determined??
 socially constructed
 “male” and “female” ..
 “masculine” and “feminine”
and the intersex…
and those in between?
Gender… ways of acting…
Is gender really just either masculine or feminine?
Is gender unchanging or fixed ?
Is it really based on biological sex?
but… what the culture has divided into
“masculine” or “feminine” ways of acting
are simply human behaviors,
which all people are capable of expressing…
… men can be gentle and women can be goal-oriented…
Gender as Performance
Gender… is a way of acting the body…“one executes it,
institutes, produces and reproduces it, wears it, flaunts it, hides it,
but always stylizes it in one way or another.” (Butler, 1989)
… We ‘do’ Gender… we don’t ‘have’ one..
- gender is something that people ‘do’,
it is an accomplishment, a performance…
what we present to others, our actuations
- it is not something we have..
it is not something inborn, or even internal..
When a woman acts coy or cute, she is ‘doing’ gender…
When a man acts tough and insensitive, he is ‘doing’ gender…
Dad wears skirt to support
dress-wearing son
Nil Pickert’s five-year-old son enjoyed
wearing dresses when their family lived
in West Berlin. Dad said “ I didn’t
Father
of the Year
want to talk my son into not
wearing dresses and skirts. He
didn’t make friends in doing that
already and after a lot of
contemplation I had only one
option left: To broaden my
shoulders for my little buddy
and dress in a skirt myself.”
Dad wears skirt to support
dress-wearing son
Dad says he’s trying to raise his
son to believe he doesn’t have to
conform to social expectations
just because of his sex.
“I’m not one of those pseudo-intellectual
daddies that rambles on about studying
gender justice, and then, as soon as the child
is born, falls back into the comfortable and
clichéd gender roles.”
Transgendered
refers to anyone who blurs traditional gender lines
(i.e. transexuals, transvestites, cross-dressers, drag queens,
gender benders/blenders, androgynes, etc.)
Transgendered
DEAN SPADE
 Raised in rural Virginia by a single working
mother on welfare, Spade was exposed early
to injustice, poverty, and sexism. When she
was 14 and his mother died of lung cancer,
she was left in the care of two sets of foster
parents.
 Spade was once arrested simply for
trying to use a men's restroom in Grand
Central Station. Even though she broke no
law, he was held in jail for 23 hours.
 "We have to walk through the
world with a lot of fear and
trepidation, not knowing when
someone will victimize us," he said.
Transexual
- individuals who have chosen to live as a
member of the sex other than their own birth sex
some undergo physical changes, while others choose
to retain the physical body of their birth sex
Transexual
Mianne Bagger
After living in England for 5 years,
from the age of 3, Mianne's family
moved back to Denmark where
she, and her parents, started
playing golf at Holstebro Golf Klub
in 1974.
Bagger moved to Australia in
1979. In 1995, she had sex
reassignment surgery. In 1998,
she returned to golf, as an
amateur in Australia.
She caused media stir in 2003, when she played the
Australia Women's Open and attempted to join the
Australian Ladies Professional Golf association (ALPG).
" she said. "I would not feel comfortable competing if I felt I had
an advantage. From what I have experienced and from the
medical research I have read, there is no advantage at all.
All I want to do is carry myself with dignity.“
" There is a lot of misunderstanding
about transexual women in society. I
can't blame people for that. Why
would people know anything about it?
There is not much else I can expect,
really. But if they want to talk about
it, I am pretty open about my
situation, explaining what goes on and
what changes happen to the body. I
would like people to have all the
facts before they judge me."
One’s sex is not necessarily relevant
to one’s gender performance..
Biological Sex …. is diverse… XX, XY, X, XXY..
Gender… can be any behavior… along the
continuum…
of feminine to masculine behaviors…
Biological sex and gender….
(intersex, hermaphrodite, transgender, transexual)
It’s okay for men to cry, to be gentle, loving and kind…
in the same manner, it’s alright for women to speak their mind…
Sexual Orientation
based on the sex (same or other) of the people to
whom one is emotionally and sexually attracted to
Straight… referring to heterosexual identity
… people attracted to the opposite sex..
Gay… usually a term for men attracted to other men
Lesbian…a term for women attracted to other women
Bisexual…a person who is emotionally and sexually
attracted to either male or female
serially or simultaneously
To Parents who Discover their Child is Gay
.... When you hit puberty and your hormones kick in
you realize that you find the opposite sex attractive..
Its not different for gay kids, they hit puberty and
realize they are attracted to the same sex..
.. It has nothing to do with choice.. You can choose
to be a theif or glutton but you cannot alter the way
you are made.. Your child has not chosen to feel this
way and they just grow up gradually realizing they
are different as their sexuality developed.. You’re not
so different yourself when you find yourself
attracted to the opposite sex..
To Parents who Discover their Child is Gay
.. Science already proves that there is Genetic
predisposition in the growing fetus which is
subjected to a certain set of hormones in the womb.
.. Ask any gay person and they will usually say they
felt different to all the kids growing up which
suggest that our sexuality is hardwired before birth..
.. They are good kids but they are made to feel
dirty, unworthy and shameful about something
they have no control over..
To Parents who Discover their Child is Gay
.. Adolescence is such a difficult time as it is for
everyone and yet - gay children have to face the added
fear of rejection, perhaps even scorn and abuse..
.. Every Religion basically conveys loving one another,
being good people and making your own life and
other people better..
.. Remember the golden rule..
.. Take it to heart..
.. Live it!
Biological Sex – Gender – Sexual Orientation
To whom one is attracted to..
XX, XY, XXY, X,
…could be of the same sex or
Intersex,
of the opposite sex…
Hermaphrodite
Gender… can be any behavior… along the continuum…
of feminine to masculine behaviors…
male
female
masculine
feminine
attracted to a man
attracted to a woman
male
feminine
attracted to man/woman
female
masculine
attracted to a man
hermaphrodite
female-male
attracted to a man
When Cynthia was born, doctors took their best guess as
to whether she was a girl or a boy, and a surgeon altered
her ambiguous genitalia to match.
Cynthia has breasts,
a vagina, and the
Y chromosome of a man.
She was born with the chromosome;
the breasts are largely the result of hormone therapy
and the vagina is partially a surgical creation.
Her father seemed to bear a burden of
anxious guilt for years, she says.
Her mother “was an emotional basket
case about anything about me.”
And the price they paid to protect her
was to uproot themselves and leave
both sides of the family behind in
Chicago.
“I love my dad and I’m very interested in keeping my relationship with
him,” she says. “But there’s a chasm with my dad. He loves me and
he wants to have a relationship, but there’s this space between us.
It’s his shame, his embarrassment, his pain.
It’s ‘Look what we did to you.’”
Intersex
Four decades after being
assigned to the female gender,
Cynthia has entered a manylayered coming-out process.
It entails gradually letting people
at work understand that
“there’s a reason I never have
a time of the month when you
see me take my purse into the
ladies’ room with me.”
And then I fell in love… with…. Farrah..
My father was like..
‘You’re a girl..
People will think you’re a weirdo.’
I was like.. ‘What do they have
against Farrah?’ You realize now
that I am an XY individual, so I
was just being an average guy.
But it looked to him like I was into something homoerotic.
And it was just my body telling me what I liked.”
Are they different
compared to us?
So what
if they are different???
So what if you are different?
INSIGHT,
I believe,
refers to the depth of understanding
that comes by setting experiences,
yours and mine , familiar and exotic , new and old,
side by side,
Learning… by letting them speak to one another
– Mary Catherine Bateson
It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change..
At bottom every man knows well enough
that he is a unique being,
only once on this earth;
and by no extraordinary chance
will such a marvelously picturesque piece
of diversity in unity as he is,
ever be put together a second time.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
You are a unique being.. No one will ever be like You..
Just Stand Up! 
There is no need for temples,
No need for complicated philosophy…
Our own brain, our own heart – is our temple;
The Philosophy is kindness…
Season Three of Korea’s Next Top Model features
among its cast of aspiring fashionistas Choi Han-bit,
who is transgender.
Ee Choi, 26, studied traditional dance
in college. With the support of Choi’s
parents, she received genderreassignment surgery six years ago
and changed her name, which means
“ray of sunshine.”
In a 2009 interview with Korea Times, she said “selfconfidence” was her coping mechanism for dealing with
intolerance: “I have found many sexual minorities who
distanced themselves from society to avoid public exposure,”
Choi explained. “I would like to advise them not to hide and
[to] come out. With a fear of public attention, it’s all but
impossible to change people’s attitude toward us.”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpoNMmK6QJA
 Firework.. Download for video
To Parents who Discover their Child is Gay
.. Genetic predisposition
.. Homophobic society
.... Your head is filled with misinformation
.. It has nothing to do with choice.. Its part of nature..
Why.. We don’t know..
 Homophobic society.. Its taken all of your child’s
courage and trust in you to finally tell you the truth
 They are exactly the same person they were before
 There is homophobia in the world.. And I hope we
don’t get it from you
 Misinformed prejudices that our society engenders
 Lack of acceptance, love and support..
 They want the same as you – to find a mate that they
can fall in love with and share their lives with..
 Wealth of human love that exists in this planet..
Biological Sex...
is also based on
GONADS …. Ovary or testes
INTERNAL GENITALIA … uterus or vas deference
HORMONAL MIX… testosterone…
SECONDARY SEX CHARACTERISTICS …
facial hair… breasts…
THERE IS MORE DIVERSITY IN
BIOLOGICAL SEX!
.. who says biological sex truly come only in two forms?
… Male or Female ?