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Why is the state allowed to define sex for the purpose of assigning rights?

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This question has been simmering in the back of my mind for a long time.

As a result of covering stories related to LGBT rights, and particularly, debates over hate crimes (see the “small murders” section) and same-sex marriage, it occurred to me that laws that use sex as a criteria for assigning marriage rights require the state to define a person’s sex. I am using the word sex here as a matter of biology, as opposed to gender, which is a matter of cultural performance. However, not everyone has a clear sexual identity, especially at birth. Given the variation in human biological sex that exists in nature, it’s hard to see how the state can define who is a same-sex or opposite sex couple without violating the equal protection clause of the constitution, which requires that laws be applied equally to all.

Whose rights are affected by laws assigning marriage rights on the basis of sex? Transsexual people who have been medically diagnosed with gender identity disorder have the outward appearance of being one sex, but have brains wired for the opposite sex. Transsexual people may have same-sex or opposite sex orientations. There have been legal cases in which the marriages of transsexuals to people they view as their opposite-sex partners have been invalidated by judges who insisted that biological sex is fixed at birth, is revealed by external genitalia, and can’t be changed.

However, intersex people may be born with ambiguous genitalia, or may present as one sex at birth and find at puberty that they have the sexual anatomy of the opposite sex. Parents and doctors guess the gender with which the newborn is most likely to identify, and they don’t always get it right. If you have someone who appears to be female, or is classified as female at birth, and who is ultimately determined to be male, what gives the state the right to decide whom that person is allowed to marry? Should that not be a private decision?

I don’t think that taking the legal definition of sex out of the hands of the state would invalidate sex discrimination laws, or keep private organizations from having membership or hiring criteria based on sex. For example, the Catholic church can continue to insist that all priests be male based on they perceive a male to be, because they are a private organization. An employee can still sue for sex discrimination based on their self-identification as a member of a particular sex, their employer’s identification of them as a member of a particular sex. All I’m questioning is whether the state has the right to determine who is of a particular sex.

In my mind, none of this is related to moral beliefs anyone might have about homosexuality, transsexualism, or gay marriage. I’m simply asking whether this is something that belongs in the state’s purview?

I’m not a lawyer, so there is a very good chance I’m missing something. Any thoughts?

You’re gonna need to read this, but it won’t be on Amazon

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The National Academies Report on a Workshop on the Scope and Nature of Computational Thinking sounds dry, but its implications will be fascinating to watch. The monograph is a write-up of a 2009 gathering of computing experts that considered the emerging understanding of computational thinking and its implications for education. A follow-up workshop this month will consider the challenges of teaching computational thinking in more detail. I’m pleased to say that my colleague Ursula Wolz is one of the discussants. Ursula is the PI on our Broadening Participation in Computing project, the Interactive Journalism Institute for Middle Schoolers. Her leadership on the IJIMS project has been creative and visionary, and it’s exciting to see it have an impact on the direction that computing education and practice will take in the future.

Class notes on the History of Haiti

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  1. Haiti’s revolution profoundly affected the development of the early United States and 19th-century Europe. It was a major consideration in US relations with England and France, was a direct cause of the Louisiana Purchase and contributed to Napoleon’s downfall. It struck fear in US slaveholders, snd led Denmark Vesey to ask for Haitian military support for his 1822 slave revolt.
  2. The leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L’Overture, a former slave, was a literate French-speaking Catholic who was profoundly influenced by Voltaire and other writers of the European Enlightenment.
  3. Vodou, the religion practiced by many Haitians, is a distinct religious tradition of African origin. Its practice was suppressed under French rule, and various Haitian regimes, as well as the Catholic church, have tried to stamp it out as well. However, the practice of Vodou has not only persisted, it  absorbed elements of Catholic theology and liturgy. Although missionaries still evangelize against Vodou, many contemporary Haitians profess belief in both Vodou and Catholicism. Retired  Webster University professor Bob Corbett’s 1998 notes on Vodou report that evangelical Protestants working in Haiti vocally condemn Vodou as “devil worshipper.”
  4. Haiti was forced to bankrupt itself for more than 100 years to meet France’s demands for reparations as a result of its war for independence. The effort to pay those reparations drove Haiti into hundreds of millions of dollars in additional debt.
  5. The European struggle to make sense of the Haitian revolution challenged the leading thinkers of that age, and might have led Hegel to his theory of the master-slave dialectic. (See Susan Bucks Morss, “Hegel and Haiti” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 2000), pp. 821-865. Published by: The University of Chicago Press
  6. The American occupation of Haiti from 1915-34 had disastrous results for that country’s economy and political institutions. (Read JW Johnson’s 1920 pamphlet, Self-determining Haiti, to understand the role of the Monroe Doctrine and US financial interests in precipitating the occupation.
  7. After the 1915-34 occupation, the United States supported the brutal dictatorships of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude. The Duvaliers, who ruled the island from 1957 to 1986, were supported for their reliable anti-communist stance. The US trained Haitian security forces, in addition to providing financial support. As Prof. Claire Potter points out, because the Duvalliers looted the Treasury, requiring even more borrowing.
  8. Haiti’s economic crisis has been aggravated by decades of deforestation — a combination of short-sighted government policies and actions taken by desperate peasants who eke out a living through farming. Today, only 4 percent of the country is forested, as this graphic shows (.pdf)
  9. Some American corporations, such as Disney, have come under fire for alleged labor abuses at plants in Haiti.
  10. Even before the earthquake hit, Hait’s children were in crisis. poverty rate is so stark that parents routinely give their children up to work in the homes of wealthier people. These children, known as restaveks, are frequnntly abused.

Here’s my Jan. 31, 2010 report for BlogHer on the context behind the emerging narratives from Haiti:

    What computing and informatics tools will help Haiti?

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    A great deal has been written about the how the combination of social media and cell phone technology has become a powerful fundraising mechanism in the wake of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday.  But that one example got me thinking about other kinds of computational tools that could help provide an accurate picture of both the reality near the epicenter of the quake and the ripple effects throughout the region and across the globe.

    I posted a question about this via twitter with the hashtag #DistributedExpertise and got some interesting responses via Facebook and email that further fueled my own thinking. Some are examples of applications already providing vital information about the situation on the ground, while others could be created to provide useful ongoing coverage, especially as earthquake survivors emigrate to the US and elsewhere. I’m going to split the responses into a couple of posts. This one will focus on breaking news coverage, the next will look at lessons from the Katrina and the 2004 tsunami, and the final post will focus on tools for local coverage.

    Breaking news coverage

    They included searchable databases of victims, such as this Haitian Earthquake Registry,  which pulls information from a database maintained by the International Committee of the Red Cross, among other sources.

    The New York Times is being widely applauded for its interactive map of the region with embedded audio and video:

    Those seeking to track the seismological data on the quake would do well to consult Wolfram Alpha, which mapped and charted the quake and the aftershocks:

    The Wolfram Alpha chart neatly summarizes information that is provided in greater depth by the US Geological Survey. In addition to the seismological reports, there is a podcast in which one of their experts answers questions.

    Cyberjournalist.net points to another great map by USA Today that includes radio buttons that you can click on to overlay certain kinds of information

    Georgia Popplewell, the invaluable managing director of Global Voices Online, has a great Twitter list that aggregates posts from Haiti

    The unfortunately-named site Chartporn has a running catalog of interesting and useful data visualizations related to the disaster:

    Services for donors and volunteers

    Al Tompkins at the Poynter Institute points to Charity Navigator as a way to find credible organizations to receive donations.

    Have you seen any interesting applications that should be included in this list?