Why Does the State Bar Want to Know About Your Sex Life?
It's awkward enough when a parent asks about your sex life, but the State Bar?!
In California, at least, the State Bar is asking lawyers about their sexual orientation. Apparently, it's to support "greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system."
When attorneys log in to the State Bar website, they can participate in a voluntary survey and state their gender identity. So it's not that awkward. Notably, the gender choices are far more inclusive than in the past.
LGBTQ?
In the evolving world of gender identification, the old acronyms may not be adequate anymore. Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transexual, and questioning were yesterday's sexual universe.
Today, there are more choices. Pansexual, asexual, and binary people have their own identities, and there is one more type that is totally new to most people.
"Two spirit," one of the choices in the survey, is a distinct gender status in Native American communities. It actually predates LGBTQ by countless generations.
Bar spokesperson Jonah Lamb said the anonymized survey results will be used "to better understand the state of the legal profession in a time of rapid economic, technological and demographic change in California."
Other Questions
The survey also includes questions about race, ethnicity, and job satisfaction. So it's not all about sex.
But the sexual orientation questions are definitely new. It shouldn't be a big surprise, however.
David Bowie said it would be like this when he sang about ch, ch, ch, ch, changes.
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