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What Billy Dee Williams Taught Me About Gender Fluidity
Becoming comfortable on both sides of the galaxy.
Like many who read this article about the otherworldly being, Star Wars character Lando Calrissian’s alter-ego, Billy Dee Williams and his stepping out of the cosmic closet as gender-fluid, I was delighted. My take is that when well-respected people are daring to claim their identity, regardless of where on the gender/sexuality spectrum they land, it lends courage and credibility to the process. My hope is that someday no one need ‘come out’ and it will just be an uh-huh and a natural aspect of their being.
I identify as a cis-gender woman who uses she/her pronouns. There are times when I exhibit stereo-typically proscribed masculine qualities of assertiveness, go-get-em intensity, power, determination to succeed, proactive decision making, not settling for less than what I want, taking care of business at almost any cost (my health included). On the flip side, I have lately been willing to be in receptivity mode, softer, more stereotypically feminine. The irony is that even as I typed those words, I felt a sense of embarrassment that I label certain attitudes and actions as stuff that women do and stuff that men do in order to fit a certain mold. I was raised by parents who encouraged my sister and…
