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{"id":7128,"date":"2016-11-28T17:38:41","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T17:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/?p=7128"},"modified":"2017-02-20T19:26:47","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T01:26:47","slug":"bye-bye-binary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urban-plains.com\/2016\/impact\/bye-bye-binary\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye Bye Binary"},"content":{"rendered":"
“In my natural disposition, I am extremely feminine. Female. The caregiver, the comforter,” Phillip Schmidt, who identifies as genderfluid, said.<\/p><\/div>\n
Ones and zeroes are for computers; not people<\/span><\/h5>\n
Words and photo by Molly Lamoureux \n<\/span><\/i>Graphic by Emily VanSchmus<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
Phillip Schmidt takes a long drag of her cigarette. She exhales. Crosses one leather-panted leg over the other. Scratches the stubble on her face. And starts to talk about her earliest memory.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI was four years old, and a little boy came up to me, pushed me down and said, \u2018You\u2019re weird,\u2019\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cEveryone has always thought I was queer or feminine or girly, all throughout elementary school, and I was always picked on or harassed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Schmidt was born in a man\u2019s body. You can see it in her shoulders, her jawline, her hands. But she hasn\u2019t undergone gender-reassignment surgery. In fact, she has deliberately chosen not to. She\u2019s genderfluid. Even so, she has always felt feminine pronouns were more appropriate. That said, when others refer to her as \u201che\/him,\u201d she lets it go. <\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easier as far as being able to relate to other people,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cWhen I operate by those filters, it\u2019s easier to establish a rapport, and meet their expectations or act in a way that\u2019s agreeable to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Schmidt has adopted this agreeable disposition over years of others assuming she is a homosexual male. It\u2019s not a completely misinformed assumption, based on her towering masculine build and permanent 5-o\u2019clock shadow. But it\u2019s society\u2019s need to categorize people based on gender and sexual orientation that has kept Schmidt from being her authentic self, all 42 years of her life.<\/span><\/p>\n
And she\u2019s not the only one who struggles with authenticity. <\/span><\/p>\n