All the men and women are merely players

Let's live and let live when it comes to gender

The gender cops will be coming next for Shakespeare.

Shakespeare used cross-dressing in his comedies for comic effect and to explore questions of gender and sexuality. Generations of readers and playgoers have found these plays funny and provocative but, judging by recent book-banning in Florida and elsewhere, they will soon be forbidden material in much of the country.

Six Shakespeare plays include cross-dressing, with women disguising themselves as men and vice-versa. The plots can get bewildering — even more so when you consider that, in Elizabethan England, all theatrical parts were played by men.

So you had men playing women who were playing men — a challenge for player and playgoer. But in Oklahoma high schools, the drama clubs had better stick to “Oklahoma!”, since a whole slate of state laws target the acceptance of transgenderism. 

Tens of thousands of Americans don’t fit into the gender boxes where states want to force them. Politically dominated by Republicans, these states are restricting what can be read and talked about in school, controlling the names and pronouns students may call themselves and banning gender-affirming health care for everyone.

Legislation being pushed in Tennessee would require the state’s Medicaid program to drop insurance companies that provide gender-affirming care such as breast reduction surgery.

It’s not that Tennessee Republicans object to boob jobs. They want to forbid the realization of certain desires, approving an intention to make your breasts more attractive but prohibiting a change to match the gender you feel in your soul is your own.

In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” Rosalind disguises herself as a man, Ganymede, and befriends the man she loves, Orlando. Orlando confesses to Ganymede he is hopelessly in love with Rosalind, and Ganymede suggests, to cure himself, Orlando woo him while he “pretends” to be Rosalind.

At the same time, a shepherdess, Phoebe, falls in love with Ganymede.

So a man (Orlando) is wooing a man (Ganymede) who is a woman in disguise (Rosalind), while a woman (Phoebe) is in love with a woman (Rosalind) who is dressed as a man (Ganymede).

Questions arise, naturally.

Does Orlando develop feelings for Ganymede as he performs the wooing exercise meant to cure him of love?

Is Phoebe in love with Ganymede’s dashing appearance or with Rosalind’s clever, generous character?

Can we fall in love with the heart and spirit of another human being, regardless of gender? Does wearing a costume, male or female, change who we are, inside?

You can see how “As You Like It,” one of the greatest plays in the English language, could be problematic for people offended by talk of gender fluidity or the transgender experience. And folks who think drag queens are the devil may not appreciate the gender-switching and bawdy jokes that Shakespeare loves.

I don’t know how much Shakespeare high-schoolers are reading these days. It seems a shame to skip his work out of fear of being reprimanded by the Neo-Puritans of the Republican Party.

These mean-spirited laws are doing real damage to young people who are having a hard enough time coming to terms with their identity. But the backlash wouldn’t exist if our culture weren’t changing.

Those who strut around, prating about dangers that don’t exist, are on their way to becoming anachronisms. If all the world’s a stage, ours is growing larger and more inclusive, despite those who would wish it otherwise.