The question, "are you a boy or are you a girl?" seems like an innocent one, but for a person in the midst of a gender transition it can be devastating. Transitioning is already a really uncomfortable process for a lot of people that involves painful surgery, hormone injections, and ridicule. We can't do anything about the first two but we can stop criticizing the appearance of others.
Jamie Raines is here to remind you that asking that question is unacceptable. It's a question that makes trans people uncomfortable and it isn't any of your business. Our society is engineered from the ground up for straight people. This makes the process of transitioning an isolating one, it's time we accepted that and stop adding to the problem with useless questions.
We have a social responsibility to one another to reject questions like this. In the world of trans rights activism, this question can be a difficult one to overcome. The battle is still ongoing, but it can get better.
It's time we stopped striving for feminine and masculine perfection. Gender identities are expanding every day. There is no longer a need to be concerned with what pre-designed box another person fits into.
It's time we start asking questions like, "how would your friends describe you?" With questions like this, we can empower people to talk about themselves from an outside perspective and focus on seeing people how they see themselves.