HOWSOEVER WE LIVE

The New Age of Love and Identity.

- By Snigdha Jauhari

Moms, Dads," I said, looking around.

Three pairs of parents—mine, Meher’s, and Ron’s—looked at me.

“The three of us have decided to live together,” I declared.

SILENCE.

After a few moments, my mother asked in a calm voice, “Explain in... eh... some detail?”

“Well,” I said, “we will live like a married couple.”

“You mean married-trio?” My mother said.

“Treeo...!?” I asked, confused.

“Well, technically yes,” Meher responded, “since couple means two, and we are three.”

“Marriage,” my mother said, “means commitment—legal, social, emotional...”

“Well!” I interrupted. “Ours may not be legal, because there are no laws that include three people... three or more, but we are emotionally committed.”

“Hmmm,” my mother said enigmatically.

My father sat hunched, scowling. Ron’s father looked so confused that I had to control myself from laughing. And Meher's father looked every bit angry.

“RUBBISH!” He boomed. “NON-SENSE!” He scowled.

“Two women, one man, calling themselves married TREEEO! Marriage is ONE Man, ONE Woman,” like we—your mother and father are. What is the sense of having... having... THIS?!?”

I sighed.

“THIS...” trying to be patient with such hackneyed, repeated questions, I tried to throw in some sense. “THIS is because you guys are cisgender. We are NOT.”

“We are WHAT?” All the parents spoke in unison, creating an avalanche of sound.

“You guys are cisgender,” I repeated loudly. “You see yourselves either as a man or a woman—that’s cisgender. People like you guys have a gender identity that is based SOLELY on the gender you were born with. For example, all fathers here, born male at birth, live as men. All mothers, female at birth, live as women.”

“Thank God,” my father bellowed.

“Well... I am not sure,” I said. “Narrow classification! Claustrophobic to us. To many of us.”