The Gender Spectrum

In his letter to PAW (Inbox, May 13), my classmate Walter Weber ’81 sees gender as binary — “men or women” — and thus chooses to ignore that biology and psychology both recognize individuals as finding themselves on a spectrum. For example, in Mr. Weber’s worldview, how should a hermaphrodite self-identify? His comment that “such people need love and support, not illusions,” comes across as patronizing, and equating transgender people to mental-illness patients. 

Mr. Weber’s conservative ideology trumps his willingness to accept norms that fall outside his narrowly and inaccurately drawn boundaries.