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# Self-identification Is the Most Basic Liberty
December 06 2021
Written by Richard Lee Abrams.
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THE VIEW FROM HERE - We are plagued by people who define liberty as doing what they want when they want with no regard for the consequences.
What is the substantive difference between someone who refuses to wear a mask or get a vax but yet goes out in public not knowing whether they are spreading a deadly disease and someone who steals Xmas packages from the front porch or participates in a mob smash and grab at Target? They all think that they have some inherent right to do whatever they wish with no thought how they impact others.
Yet, many of these same self-proclaimed freedom lovers deny to others the most basic liberty to define who they are. Donald Trump became the Bigot-in-Chief when he instituted his Transgender Ban for the military**. August 28, 2017,[ CityWatch, Defense of Transgender Rights: Everybody’s Fight, by Richard Lee Abrams](http://bit.ly/2vmJSRz)** That action was no inadvertent comment like his referring to Jews as globalists.
We have millions of fundamentalist Christians (an oxymoron?) trashing everything for which Jesus stood by agitating for anti-Gay legislation. Don’t let me start on their bathroom obsession. They deny their own children the most basic human right of self-identification by sending them off for Reparative Therapy, lest their own child’s self-identification should become a social embarrassment. They are in the vanguard of meddling in other people’s lives without offering an iota of help. They oppose abortion, birth control and sex education. They are the moral heirs of witch burners who then greedily took over the farm lands of those they had burnt at the stake. Let’s be clear, there is no inalienable right to harm others. In fact, the Declaration said government is instituted to prevent those who would trample upon the rights of others.
**Life is More Complicated and Wonderful Than We Realized**
We are beginning to understand that the variety of ways people can self-identify is significantly greater than we thought. For a while, there were Gays and Straights, but then the female Gays were termed Lesbians. Chastity Bono woke up a lot of people. I believe Chastity went from straight female to Lesbian to transgender male. I do not know if Chaz is Gay or Straight but my guess is Straight. It does not matter to me; the entire time Chastity/Chaz has been the same person of integrity. I think the world owes more than it realizes to Chastity/Chaz. I use both names only because I am referring to the human courage which has existed throughout his life.
Now, we are learning that many people are [non-binary.](https://bit.ly/3GdiNk3) Currently, we have a pronoun problem, but that is merely a language situation which we will solve just as mankind has solved gazillions of language problems since we have had language. For now, I try to accept whatever the other person chooses. Recently, I realized that “he/she” has its limitations because the male/female dichotomy is not accurate. I dislike using “they,” because the plural negates individuality. But, it is better than using “he/she/it,” since “it” is for inanimate objects. Our language is presently deficient because our experiences are lacking. If we chill out and use good faith, we’ll work it out.
**The Inalienable Right of Self-Identification Needs to be Acknowledged**
The point, which all Americans should realize, is that a nation that is based on individual inalienable rights including Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness cannot infringe on anyone’s self-identity or restrict their rights because their identity may be upsetting to others. A person’s chosen identity is not a problem, and no one should try to make it one. Our society’s has been living in a psychological dark ages, but we are doing better.
We owe a great thank-you to US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for his decision in Lawrence vs. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) basing Gay Rights on the inalienable and constitutional right of liberty. Everything he said applies to all self-identifications.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with equality, which is the antithesis of self-identification, since equality is not based on the uniqueness of the individual self but rather on reference to the identity choices which some other person or persons have made. Under equality, how one is treated is divorced from that person’s individuality in favor of lumping them into some group and then comparing their group to how some other group is treated.
Let’s stick with Martin Luther King, where individual character counts, and everything else is extraneous.
*(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch. You may email him at* [*RickLeeAbrams@Gmail.com*](mailto:RickLeeAbrams@Gmail.com)*)*
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