Garrymandering

The Massachusetts governor in 1812 was Elbridge Gerry and he tried to redistrict the state so it would benefit his party in an upcoming election. The shape of the new boundaries when drawn resembled that of a salamander, and a portmanteau combining the governor’s name with a salamander was born: Gerrymandering. His party lost that election but the name stuck, and anytime we mess around with boundaries, it is called “gerrymandering”.

Caitlyn Marie Jenner, former Olympic gold medalist decathlon athlete, decided that his physique and psychology better fitted that of a woman, and we got a famous male TV star to publicly own up to a transformation and be the Transgender of 2016. The fact that the public hardly batted an eye, even in the conservative outbursts of the era of The Donald, is indicative of the psychological and sociological gerrymandering that is occurring in our time without the accompanying negative connotations.

Garry is not her real name but a ponytailed “lady” often jogs her good-looking booty at our four-building complex’ parking lot. I do not know her well, and I am definitely writing on a clear “garrymandering” mood, but Garry is a good-looking transgender, and proud of it. Our concern is not this specific Garry (though I pause for comedian Garry Shandling unexpectedly quitting at 66 this week), as it is the transgender phenomenon that Jenner represents and my neighbor Garry embodies, along with the journey I took from being apologetic of the bakla in Tanza, Tuguegarao where I briefly stayed when I visited my parents, to the awe of Caitlyn Jenner of the media.

Growing up, the prejudice was on “misfits.” In Samoa, when a family has all boys, the runt is raised as a girl, a Fa’afafine; when all are girls, one is raised a boy. In ancient Akkadia of the Middle East, a salzikrum was one who was biologically female but had male traits. The effeminate in Samoa and Tonga, and the tomboy in Akkadia are full members of the society. No big deal. The salzikrum is considered a “male daughter” with rights to inheritance not normally extended to daughters.

The “misfits” in Tanza were exactly that to my Mom, until she developed skin rashes for using a certain detergent on her wash. A transvestite showed her how to use the soap properly.”Manang,” she said in her high-pitched lilting voice, “Kastoy ngamin ti aramidem” (this is what you do). It worked.

When my mother became socially active in the Cagayan Valley community development circuit, there were some good-looking transgenders in her entourage; and we are not talking of barber-salon keeper variety either. BTW, we do not disparage on the latter none!

The estimate is that as high as 5 percent of humanity are born transgender, and 95 percent develop prejudices against them. We begin early to disparage those we consider “abnormal” and the transgender is high on the list. Other terms like transsexual, transvestite, cross-dresser, etc., were often used with degrees of prejudice but we have Bruce Jenner to thank for in making the transgender category legitimately one of a third kind in our time. The politically conservative Irish in May surprisingly voted to legalize same-sex marriages, a practice now lawful in Guam.

My father sawed wood with his right hand and hammered nails with his left. He was ambidextrous but when he was growing up, he was trained to write with his right and discouraged to use his left, a waste of talent. He often did things with his left hand and finally gave himself permission to be ambidextrous rather than pay much attention to society’s designation of “social misfit!”

My sister was tired of my tagging behind her to school when I was 4 years old, so she enrolled me on first grade. My mother did not mind but when she tried to enroll me to first grade again, the teacher informed her that I already passed the class (barely, made 77) and qualified to move to the next grade. So all throughout school, I was two years younger than my peers.

I was in fourth grade when I noticed that girls enjoyed playing with me when I allowed them to dress me up as a doll. My brother called me an effeminate bakla because of the cross-dressing, unthinkable then, but now, a normal entertainment datum as actor Will Smith tries to explain his son Haden’s cross-dressing antics.

It is for reasons of honesty and reality that we welcome Bruce Jenner, the macho dude and stud turned into an attractive member of the “fairer” sex late in her age. There is virtue in being able to live just the way life is handed to us. The Jews had it right: the Way Life Is, YHWH, is the supreme reality. Unfortunately, we turned the focus on “supreme” rather than on the “reality.”

Garry is audaciously unabashed about who she is, so we proudly nod our assent on this annual holiday of International Transgender Day of Visibility. There are among Pinoys in hair dressing shops and salons that need to know they need not apologize for who they are. Vive la difference!