Our Values
When we started to pull the Genderly site together, we decided that it was important that we clearly set out what our core values are. These are values that the whole team share, and it’s those values that have shaped the site and the thinking behind it.
So – what are those values?
Inclusion
It should go without saying that we are inclusive of gender identity. But, to spell that out, regardless of whether you identify as transsexual, gender variant, transvestite, or gender queer, this site is here to support you.
But inclusion goes a great deal further than that. While sexuality and sexual expression are not our main focus, we recognise that most people are, to some extent, sexual and we embrace all sexual orientations and all forms of sexual expression between adult human beings. We are inclusive of lifestyles – it is not our business (nor the business of anyone else, in our view) how people live their lives.
While the focus remains upon gender identity, we do not exclude anyone whose gender identity falls within the so-called ‘binary’. All of us have friends whose gender identity is that assigned to them at birth (people who are considered cisgender). Many of us have lovers or partners who are cisgender. All such individuals are welcome here and are free to participate in the Members section of the site, as long as they, like the rest of us, respect our core values.
Respect
Respect is the partner to Inclusion. We do not recognise hierarchies and we do not believe that any identity is superior or more ‘authentic’ than any other. People should be respected as human beings whose beliefs and views are important. But Respect is not the same thing as Tolerance – while we absolutely respect the right of any individual to hold views that we do not share, we do not tolerate any expression of homophobia, transphobia, or misogyny. We do not, in fact, tolerate intolerance.
Honesty and Openness
We respect any person’s desire or need for privacy. We are also (sometimes painfully) aware that people may not feel they are able to express their gender identity openly. We recognise that for family or other personal reasons, people may wish to remain ‘in the closet’, and we expect others to respect that decision. Almost everyone whose gender identity differs from the norm will have, at some point in their life, chosen to remain in the closet or in ‘stealth’.