Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira offered an alternative proof that the commandment to honor parents applies equally to all people regardless of sex. His argument in the Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael is built on the juxtaposition of two obligations in a single verse.
The verse in (Leviticus 19:3) reads: "A man, his mother and his father shall you fear, and My Sabbaths shall you keep." Rabbi Yehudah noticed that fear of parents and keeping Shabbat (the Sabbath) appear in the same sentence, linked by the conjunction "and." This is not accidental. The Torah is drawing a deliberate parallel between the two obligations.
The rule for Shabbat is well established: there is absolutely no distinction between men and women in the obligation to keep Shabbat. Both are equally commanded. Both are equally liable for violations. Shabbat observance is universal.
Since the verse places fear of parents on equal footing with Shabbat observance, the same principle must apply. Just as Shabbat makes no distinction between man, woman, tumtum, or hermaphrodite, neither does the obligation to fear one's parents.
Rabbi Yehudah ben Betheira's method is a classic example of rabbinic legal reasoning: when two laws appear together in the same verse, the known rules of one can illuminate the unknown rules of the other. Shabbat's universality is beyond dispute. By anchoring parental honor to Shabbat, the verse guarantees that parental honor is equally universal.