I was pleasantly surprised to see a profile of a young transgendered person tucked away in The Os local section yesterday. Yet while I may expect a high schooler, still unraveling the mysteries of gender and sexuality, to express confusion and inaccuracies I did hope that the author might be on surer footing.
I applaud that by the end of the article Reddy uses Dannys chosen gender pronoun (he) but why the switch, beginning with the she that Danny must put up with in the struggle of the rest of his life. But ok, perhaps it could be a clever literary device striving to envelop the inner turmoil of transition. This, however, is a stretch.
Reddy also refers to the youth with the term transgender lesbian. And while Danny is free to identify any way he so desires I dont believe this is a chosen moniker or most likely correct. In general that would imply a male to female trans individual who dates woman, while it seems Danny is a female to male to dates women. Completely different.
As someone who has participated in the gender Gumby game as well as speaking with Bridge 13 as a teenager, these more straightforward explanations, too, seem a bit confusing, even to me. I wonder if a larger Oregonian audience will come away from the story with any sense of the lives and difficulties of transgendered youth. While I am happy to see trans issues in the news I wonder if an article this muddled and short goes in depth enough, or is clear and accurate enough, to be more good than harm.
