Today I remembered watching a video about assuming genders. There was a guy talking about tumblr people that say things like "Don't assume gender" and he said that's stupid because most of the people are cis gendered and it would be really weird if they were asked about their preferred pronouns. But on the other hand parents start not to assume the sexual orientation of their children right away. I know this is not that common yet either but I think it's getting more "popular" if you know what I mean? But not assuming gender is really rare in comparison. So why is that? Is it because other sexual orientations than hetero are getting more common now and the percentage of people not being hetero has risen to a certain level? And then there's my question: Does anyone know how high the chance of not being hetero cis is? And what are you thinking about this whole thing in general?
In the UK, there is 99% of people who are cisgender In the world, there is 10% of people who are not-straight I'm not sure how much of a chance at procreation it gives a child as to their sexuality and/or gender, but those are the statistics (that I know of) after birth. What do I think? It's biological stuff people can't choose, we can't hate the fact 90% people are straight as it's their sexuality and not ours [basically the same argument why we shouldn't hate on LGBT people]. For gender, I'd like to think on an evolutionary scale that trans eventually doesn't happen so that everyone is born with matching gender to sex, so no one feels dysphoric.
Just because there's not a huge chance of someone being non-straight and/or cis doesn't mean you should discard anyone who isn't. It depends on context, too: take a Pride parade, for example. It would be safer to ask than be sorry. I'm willing to bet this guy thinks of anyone who doesn't fall under the LGBT umbrella is "normal".
Figuring out the actual probability of someone not being heterosexual or cis is incredibly difficult to estimate since we are relying on self-reports through surveys. That said, surveys usually indicate that roughly 99+% are cis (like the above poster mentioned) and roughly 2-5% of the population (possibly up to 10 percent, at best) are non-hetero.
I don't think there's anything wrong with presuming someone's gender or orientation, given the fact that the overwhelming majority of people are not gay or transgender. I'm certainly not offended if someone presumes me to be straight, and I presume people I meet are straight or cisgender until proven otherwise. The only time I'll err to the side of caution is if I can't actually tell what gender they are.. like this person I met on a work experience placement who presented in a very masculine manner but clearly had breasts.. turns out they were transgender rather than a masculine woman.
Assuming gender is rarely going to get you in trouble or have you end up with your foot in your mouth, though it is a possibility. The fact is that people on Tumblr often parrot things like that without really thinking about what they mean. It's unrealistic to ask the majority of cisgendered people to "not assume gender" based on what is intrinsically obvious to them due to human nature. Once you realize the correct gender of the person, though, you should respect it.