我們是否要面臨一個無性別化的未來？

有一小群人拒絕被貼上「男性」或「女性」的標籤，這群人的數量正不斷增多。

>今年春天，新南威爾士州出生死亡婚姻登記處向悉尼市民發了一張含有「既非男（M）也非女（F）」的證件，袋鼠國人氏Norrie May-Welby作為世界上第一個合法的無性人佔盡了全世界的目光>

For a few days, it appeared that the 48-year-old activist and performer had won a long legal battle to be declared 「sex not specified」—the only category that felt right to this immigrant from Scotland. May-Welby』s journey of gender identity can only be characterized as a long and winding road. Registered male at birth, May-Welby began taking female hormones at 23 and had sex-change surgery to become a woman, but now doesn』t take any hormones and identifies as genderless. The prized piece of paper May-Welby sought is called a Recognised Details Certificate, and it』s given to immigrants to Australia who want to record a sex change.

幾天來，這位48歲的行為藝術家、演員贏得了一場曠日持久的「性別不詳」合法戰爭的勝利——對於這位蘇格蘭移民來說唯一正確的性別類型。May-Welby追求性別認證的道路算的上漫長而曲折。May-Welby在出生時被登記為男性，在23歲時開始使用雌性激素並做了變性手術從而成為了一枚女人，而TA現在不再使用任何激素並被鑒定為無性別。May-Welby所追求的這張珍貴證件叫「個人資料認證證」，它是發給那些想記錄變性的澳大利亞移民的。

But the victory was short-lived. After so much publicity, it was perhaps inevitable that the New South Wales government would backtrack—which it did a few days later, saying the Recognised Details Certificate didn』t have the legal authority to issue a certificate with anything but male or female. May-Welby (who now goes by the single name Norrie) has filed an appeal with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

但這個勝利非常短命。在如此多的宣傳後，新南威爾士州政府撤銷的舉動似乎就變成了必然。而政府幾天後確實這樣做了，並表示這個證件並不來自一個能夠核發一張「既非男也非女」證合法機構。May-Welby（現在被稱呼為單名Norrie）已經向澳大利亞人權組織遞交了一份申請。

It』s easy to dismiss this case as just one more bizarre news story from Down Under, but May-Welby』s case could also represent the future of gender identity. Although no one is keeping statistics, researchers who study gender say a small but growing number of people (including some who have had sex-change operations) consider themselves 「gender neutral」 or 「gender variant.」 Their stories vary widely. Some find that even after surgery, they simply can』t ignore previous years of experience living as another gender. Others may feel that their gender identity is fluid. Still others are experimenting with where they feel most comfortable on what they see as a continuum of gender. 「For some, it』s a form of protest because gender is such a strong organizing principle in our society,」 says Walter Bockting, an associate professor and clinical psychologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School who has been studying transgender health since 1986. 「Their identities expand our thinking about gender.」

這件事很容易被忽視，畢竟此類的新聞故事再就只有Down Under身上的一個了，不過May-Welby的案例也能代表性別身份的未來。儘管無人做過相關統計，但性別研究人員表示有一小群數量正不斷增加的人（包括那些做過變性手術的人）認為他們是「中性」或「不定性」的。他們的故事多種多樣。有人發現即使是術後，他們也就是單純地不能忽略從前那些年以另一個性別生活的經歷。其他人可能會覺得他們的性別身份變幻不定。不過還是有另外一些人正在把其視作性別的連續統一體上探索——那是他們感覺最棒的方式了。「對一些人來說，這是一種防護的方式。因為性別在我們的社會中是一種如此之強的組織原則，」明尼蘇達醫科大學的副教授、臨床心理學家Walter Bocking如是說，他自從1986年起就一直在研究變性保健。「他們的身份擴展了我們關於性別的想法。」

In fact, some researchers compare the evolution in thinking about gender to the struggle that began a generation ago for gay and lesbian rights. Dr. Jack Drescher is a member of an American Psychiatric Association (APA) committee that is currently reviewing changes to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is used around the world by clinicians, researchers, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies to classify mental disorders. DSM-5, as it』s called, won』t be published until 2013, but Drescher』s committee is reconsidering the diagnosis of gender-identity disorder, which encompasses people who do not identify with the gender assigned to them by biology.

事實上，一些研究者將這場性別思維上的革命與上一代人為同性戀權益所作的鬥爭對比。Jack Drescher博士是一個美國精神病學協會（APA）的委員，該協會目前正在審閱第十五版《診斷統計手冊》。全世界的臨床醫生、研究人員、調控部門和保險公司都有使用這本書來將精神疾病歸類。該書第五本，如其名，將會與2013年出版，但Drescher所在的委員會正在重新考慮將自我性別認識混亂（即包括那些不認同其自然生理身份的人）寫入診斷中。

The current debate echoes the controversy over the APA』s 1973 decision to modify the second edition of the DSM by declaring that homosexuality could be considered a mental disorder only if it was disturbing to the patient. Drescher』s committee thought about dropping the diagnosis of gender-identity disorder altogether, but realized that if it did, people who wanted treatment (sex-change surgery, hormones, or talk therapy) wouldn』t be able to get the diagnosis they need for insurance coverage. Instead, Drescher says, the committee is proposing changing the name to 「gender incongruence」 and making the diagnosis contingent on the person feeling significant distress over their gender confusion. 「We didn』t want to pathologize all expressions of gender variance just because they were not common or made someone uncomfortable,」 Drescher says.

現在的爭論讓人想起了APA（澳洲通訊）1973年修改第二版《診斷統計手冊》的決定。此次修改宣布了同性戀僅在干擾到患者時才可以被視為一種精神疾病。Drescher所在的委員會想過把有關自我性別認識混亂的診斷統統刪去，但後來認識到這樣做的話那些想得到治療（變性手術、外加激素或交談治療）的人就不能得到其就診所需的保險費了。Drescher說，委員會正提議把病名改為「性別失統」並且把確診條件設為該人對其性別認識的混亂使其感到顯著不適時。「我們不想僅僅因為那些人與眾不同或令一些人感到不爽而將所有關於性別失統的表現歸為病態。」

But that seemingly simple change of language could help usher in a new era, in which a person』s gender could be expressed or experienced as male, female, 「in between,」 or 「otherwise.」 「People who work in this area have very flexible notions of gender,」 Drescher says. 「We don』t want to force people to fit into a doctor』s categories,」 even though, he concedes, most cultures 「tend to think in binaries.」

但這個看似簡單的語言變化可能會在一個人的性別可以被表示或被體現為男、女、「中性」或「其他」的新時代里幫到招待員。「在這種地方工作的人對性別的觀念很靈活。」Drescher說。「我們不想強令人們填入醫生所劃的分類中。」即便如此，他承認，大多數文化「傾向於非此即彼地思考。」

Bockting predicts that such binary thinking will eventually disappear. Many scientists, he says, see gender as a continuum and acknowledge that some people naturally fall in the middle. Gender, Bockting says, 「develops between the biological and the environmental. You can』t always detect gender by physical evidence. You have to ask the person how they identify themselves; in that sense, it』s psychological.

Bockting認為這種非此即彼的思想將會最終消失。「許多科學家，」他說，「將性別視為一種連續統一體並且承認一些人確實天生就是中性的。」「性別，」Bockting說，「在遺傳與環境之間發展變化。你不能老是憑藉生理證據來判定性別。你必須去問問這個人是怎麼界定自己的。那樣的話，就是從精神上了。」

And gender isn』t synonymous with sex, he says, although the distinction may elude the layman. Sex, Bockting says, is assigned at birth based on the appearance of external genitalia. But, he says, 「to determine a person』s gender identity, you have to wait until they grow up and can describe how they identify their gender.」 And being genderless or gender-neutral isn』t the same thing as being asexual. 「If you are asexual,」 he says, 「you are not interested in having sex with other people,」 while gender-neutral people may be attracted to men, women, both sexes, or other people who are gender-neutral.

「還有，性別與性並非同義詞，」他說，「儘管門外漢可能不知道其區別。」「性，」Bockting說，「是生來便由外生殖器的樣子註定的。但是，」他說，「要想判斷一個人自我的性別認識，你就必須等到其長大成年，才能描述其如何界定其性別的。」並且「無性」或「中性」與無性慾並不是一回事。「如果你沒有性慾，」他說，「你就對與其他人發生性行為毫無興趣，但中性的人就可能會對男人或女人或雙性或其他中性人感興趣。」

And while May-Welby』s story may seem out there, Bockting says it』s not uncommon for people undergoing sex changes to find that surgery doesn』t resolve all their gender-identity issues. 「With time,」 he says, 「they accept a certain amount of ambiguity … We have this idea that people take hormones and undergo surgery and become the other gender. But in reality it』s more complicated.」

儘管May-Welby的案例似乎已足夠直面，Bockting說這對於那些正在經歷性別轉變卻發現手術並不能解決他們全部的性別認識問題的人來說並不具普遍意義。「隨時間流逝，」他說，「他們接受了一些模糊的信息...我們認為人們外加激素和做變性手術後就會變為另一種性別。但事實要複雜得多。」

Even before the advent of sex-change surgery, there were always people who felt they didn』t fit into either gender. In India, a group of people called hijra have existed for centuries. They are typically biological males who dress as women but consider themselves to have neither gender, Bockting says. There is also a long tradition of eunuch culture. Even today, other countries are more comfortable with the idea of gender variance. Drescher says that France has removed transsexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders and put it in the category of rare diseases. The British government has also declared that transsexuality is 「not a mental illness,」 but people who want a sex-change can get treatment under the National Health Service.

即使在變性手術前，也總有些人感覺他們不適合任何一個性別。在印度，一群叫hijra的人已經存在存在了數百年之久。他們是典型的偽娘，但卻認為他們不屬於任何一個性別。Botcking說。宦官文化也有很長的傳統。即使在今天，其他國家對於性別失統的思想也寬容些。Drescher說法國已經將變性從精神病的列表中移除，而將其放在罕見病的目錄之下。英國政府也已宣布變性「不是精神疾病，」但那些想變性的人們還是能在國家公共健康機構里得到治療。

How all the debate will play out in this country is still unclear, but college students may be among those leading the charge for change. Many campuses—including Harvard, Penn and Michigan—now offer gender neutral housing and more unisex bathrooms to accommodate students who don』t fall neatly into male or female categories. The Common Application, which is used by most college applicants, just announced that it is considering adding voluntary questions that would give students a broader array of choices to describe their gender identity and allow them to state their sexual orientation, after gay advocates urged the change. How long before such changes begin to show up in other parts of society is unclear. But Drescher says he is certain of one thing after a lifetime of working with gender: "There is no way that six billion people can be categorized into two groups." Now if we could only figure out the pronoun problem.

這種爭論將在這個國家種扮演何種角色還不清楚，但大學生們可能參與到領導改革的行列中了。許多學校——包括哈佛，賓大和密歇根——現在都為住校的非男非女的學生提供了中性公寓和更多不分男女的浴室。大多數大學申請者最普遍的請求僅僅是在同性戀擁護者強烈要求變革之後宣布正在考慮增加義務服務，這些服務將會給予學生們更多在其自我性別認知上的選擇權，並且允許他們公開聲明他們的性傾向。至於那些變革還需要多久才能出現在社會的其他地方，我們還不知道。但Drescher說在和性別問題打了一輩子交道後，他有一件事情是確定的：「沒辦法就把六十億人劃分為兩類的。」現在我們可以解決這個代詞問題了。

【本文由希神之後獨家授權給譯言

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