Gender Broken
Losing my male identity
In these days of ever-broadening sexual self-identification, I never thought I would have to fight to maintain my chosen gender. I am a male and, if I had to pick my pronouns, they most decidedly would be “he/him/his.”
Recently, my government retiree dental insurance plan switched providers and that meant completing my profile including my name, address and gender. For the latter, I typed in “male” and all was fine.
Last year, that same provider took over my government retiree healthcare insurance plan. The transition did not go smoothly so it occurred to me that it might be wise to check and ensure that my personal info was accurate.
I signed into the insurer’s site and found everything in order except for the gender entry. Instead of the expected “male”, my personal profile read “Prefer not to answer.”
I actually did prefer to answer having been male for over 74 years. Someone somewhere goofed up but surely, I thought, it would be a simple matter to correct the error. The “Edit” button on the page suggested this would be the case.
Despite my 28-year career in the Canadian federal government, I did not anticipate what followed. When I clicked on “Edit”, a note said I could change some entries but not the one for gender.
