CHAPTER 6: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

1. What is the difference between gender equity, gender equality, and women’s empowerment?

The gender equity is a provision of fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and
responsibilities between women and men while the gender equality is the equal rights, responsibilities,
and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys and the women’s empowerment is a process
by which women gain power and control over their own lives and acquire the ability to make strategic
choices.

2. Are you happy being the gender you are?

At first, I could tell I wasn't happy maybe because I have experienced gender dysphoria. I was born a
boy but I feel I should have been born a girl. Sometimes I asked myself why I feel this. But even I feel this
I didn’t changed. I never thought of being gay. My mother said to me that being a transgender or a
homosexual is an abominable sin and this scares me a lot. I’m afraid that my family might not accept me.
Sometimes I wish that there would be a miracle and when I woke up, I am already a female person. I
know that it is impossible and I cannot change what God made to me. But for the sake of my own good I
will choose now what is right. Stop fighting what was the best for me. Accept what really, I am. So far,
I’m still in the process of self-acceptance.

3. Why do you think some people want to change their legal gender?

I ​think they are experiencing gender dysphoria. ​It is a feeling of discomfort or distress that might
occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical
characteristics. They have vague feelings of “not fitting in” with people of their assigned sex or specific
wishes to be something other than their assigned sex. Some of them experience intense dissatisfaction
with their sex assigned at birth, physical sex characteristics, or the gender role associated with that sex.
That is why some people want to change their legal gender.