Yep..thats it in a nutshell. You spend your life saying em ..eh..sorry ..eh there seems to have been some sort of mix up here..ah.. I'm not this person..

True.

Whenever I have to fill out a document that asks my race I always check the 'Other' box and write into the blank " I don't know, I've never been tested". Been doing it for 30 years and no one has ever challenged me on it, even the Census people.

And a gender and a class.

I would agree that this is true for most people, that fictional identity is all they have to hold onto but for others it is just a starting point. The road less traveled is often a hard slog but it is worth it.

Your identity is assigned to you.

Defend? No, I'm here, like me or not. If you don't and have a good reason, I may try to change. There is nothing to defend. The birth document is a legal formality, with nothing on it illegal.

But not for all of us. Some of us challenge what we’re told we ‘are’. I was just discussing with my kids(35 & 36; adult kids) about one family member who was aggressively Xtian homeschooled from birth. He now says he felt abused; he’s not Xtian, never was, and was incessantly bullied about it by his mother. Giving children only one option is so unfair; persisting in forcing a square peg into a round hole is abuse. (I should know; my head used to ache from similar pounding.)