What Caitlyn Jenner And I Have In Common

On March 16, 2004, The Los Angeles Times published an article about school trustees who complained about a law regarding gender identity.

According to The Times article,  “The law requires schools’ anti-discrimination complaint procedures to reflect the state’s definition of “sex” as male or female, and gender as a “person’s actual sex or perceived sex and includes a person’s perceived identity, appearance or behavior”.

The term “perceived identity” jumped out at me. Somehow, I knew that years later more would be happening in the name of “perceived identity” that had not been anticipated in 2004, and sure enough, more has happened.  As it says in the Bible, “It came to pass.”

Bruce Jenner has become Caitlyn Jenner. He said, in effect, “I perceive that I am a woman and I will become a woman. I want to live as I perceive myself.” And it came to pass — legally.

Thanks to the determination of Ms. Jenner, I now have the courage to come out of my “perceived age closet”. Caitlyn  perceives herself to be a woman and I perceive myself to be ageless, meaning,  without a “number” defining my identity. That’s what we have in common  — we are “identity perceivers”. However, Caitlyn’s  perceived gender identity is legal while my perceived age identity is not, and it’s not fair.

I know other older women whose perceived age is not in sync with their chronological age and they would like their perceived age to be legal. You may be thinking,  “That would open up a can of worms.” Really? It can’t be any more challenging than changing genders. Actually, it would be so much easier. It wouldn’t involve a surgical procedure; you wouldn’t have to buy a new wardrobe, learn how to apply makeup,  or learn how to walk in high heels.

Perceived age identity is a movement waiting to happen and I  think I have a good chance of making it a legal reality. Follow my reasoning here. (That my reasoning may be flawed or doesn’t make sense doesn’t matter. Remember, we are living in Huxley’s Brave New World.)

Lindsay Miller,  a Lowell, Massachusetts resident and a pasta worshipping Pastafarian, recently won a legal battle to wear the traditional Pastafarian colander head covering in her driver’s license photo.

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles typically doesn’t allow people to wear hats or head coverings in their license photos, but the American Humanist Association filed an appeal on Miller’s behalf and won.

That achievement, as well as Ms. Jenner’s transformation, has set an encouraging precedent that tells me anything is legally possible.

I’m totally pumped. I’m ready to roar! Women are tired of being the captive of a meaningless chronological number that can rule and or ruin their lives!

I wonder if I could get the American Humanist Association to file an appeal on my behalf that would allow me to use my perceived age which has been 50 for the past 35 years and will probably be 50 for the next 50 years. (I’m an optimist).

Let’s Get To Work!

If I can’t get the Humanists to help, I am hoping feminist attorney Gloria Allred, the avid avenger of all forms of injustice against women (actual and imagined), will step up and volunteer to help.  Winning should be a piece of cake. After all, living one’s perceived age is no more farfetched than Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner legally becoming a woman or a pasta worshipper legally having a driver’s license photo with a pasta strainer on her head.

Ageless girlfriends, are you ready to rumble? Let’s make perceived age identity legal! Send your commitment to the cause and words of encouragement to IAm50Forever@gmail.com