Language, Ideology and Some Thoughts...

Language, Ideology and Some Thoughts from Near the Bottom.

Geneva, a few  thousand miles away, or on the moon.  What’s the difference?

First, a thought about providence.  I still find it interesting the information I’m attracted to.  As a child my grandmother told us we were part Native American.  I can’t prove anything one way or another, but did spend some time, a long time ago, researching the Tribes of New England and Long Island.  Even in adolescence I noticed all the written  accounts I had access to, were through the experience of the European.  Usually missionaries with regard to ‘salvage’. 

From following , slightly, current Native affairs, it seems a Special Rapporteur for Indigenous People from the Human Rights Council has just finished his tour of Native American conditions and submitted his report.  So…, how about a Special Rapporteur specifically for Trans or gender individuals globally.  I’ve been advised by a group apparently working with the Human Rights Council that the time is not right, politically.  When will the time be right? 

Purely by accident the other day I happened upon a live stream from the UN.  For the entire time I sat entranced, and probably for much longer after that, a delegate discussed the meaning and use of a single word.  I’m starting to become familiar with the specificity of language in legislation and documents politique.  Even to the vagueness of the result. 

This brings me to thoughts on language and ideology.  Right now, in Geneva the HRC is discussing global rights and treatment of people based on ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’.  In a way, a follow-up to the Yogyakarta Principles adopted a few years ago.  I know, I’m now retroactively less afraid.  This is great and necessary work.  The implementation of Human Rights Laws and Principles is of concern to me.  I believe today’s presentation in Geneva dealt with Russia’s return to Traditional Values.  I’m not so naïve to think a Special Rapporteur specific to the needs and conditions of the ‘gender’ community can provide any substantive change, but I think it is a place to start.

First ideology.  All, or almost all learning viewed as worthwhile today, originated with Western culture.  Patriarchal and colonial.  This includes the idea of binary gender in humans.  Indigenous knowledge, or practices and beliefs, are written off as primitive, either outright or implicitly.  The personal ideology of a gender identity for most people (at least as far as I can tell) is such a part of who they are, it’s not given a second thought.  It’s quite different for a trans or gender person.  For me, the question of identity, like fear is a constant and relentless companion.

Because of the specific nature, and use of language in settings like the Human Rights Council with regard to the Yogyakarta Principles, and the documentation I’ve read so far of the 21^st Session of the Human Rights Council, it stands out and saddens me that ‘gender identity’ like the T in LGBT always appears last.  We are still, I think, being defined by the implicit ideology of Western thought.  That, in my opinion, is not a good thing.

http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles_en.htm

http://arc-international.net/