I'm trans and had trouble picking a gender when joining.

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qwan
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04 Jan 2012, 10:51 am

I'm what I consider gender queer, I'm genderfluid; so I feel neither male nor female really.

I found it a bit difficult picking a gender, seeing as, as far as I'm concerned, gender is a social construct (one I don't truly understand thus the queerness on my part I guess).
I suppose it meant sex, which is your physical sex, in my humble opinion.

I picked the gender opposite to my sex to even things out, but it felt a bit weird not having much of a choice really.

I'm not particularly moaning, and had no other point than this really. But yeah.. :?



Fnord
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04 Jan 2012, 10:59 am

Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male), then work out the actual label you want from the "equipment" attached to your body.

Or pick one at random.

:shrug:



visagrunt
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04 Jan 2012, 11:17 am

Fnord wrote:
Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male), then work out the actual label you want from the "equipment" attached to your body.

Or pick one at random.

:shrug:


The genetic definition already leaves out a substantial number of people. Roughly one in 500 people born with male physiology are not genetically male, they are intersexed, with an XXY karyotype. That works out to 300,000 people in the United States, alone. On the "female" side, there are the people born missing a chromosome.

Physiologically there are plenty of people who cannot define themselves, eitehr. There are the people whose sexual organs never develop, or underdevelop.

And that doesn't even touch on the issue of those whose physiological sex and psychological sex are inconsistent with each other.

My suggestion is fill out nothing that does not fit. If the list of options does not include, at a minimum, an "other," option, then don't buttonhole yourself as male or female if you are neither.


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qwan
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04 Jan 2012, 11:19 am

Fnord wrote:
Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male), then work out the actual label you want from the "equipment" attached to your body.

Or pick one at random.

:shrug:

So.. pick my sex? X) I usually pick however I feel on the day but I was feeling markedly indifferent gender-wise, so wasn't sure.
It'd be nice to have an 'other' option or something.
I wonder what the neutrois lot do.



qwan
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04 Jan 2012, 11:21 am

visagrunt wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male), then work out the actual label you want from the "equipment" attached to your body.

Or pick one at random.

:shrug:


The genetic definition already leaves out a substantial number of people. Roughly one in 500 people born with male physiology are not genetically male, they are intersexed, with an XXY karyotype. That works out to 300,000 people in the United States, alone. On the "female" side, there are the people born missing a chromosome.

Physiologically there are plenty of people who cannot define themselves, eitehr. There are the people whose sexual organs never develop, or underdevelop.

And that doesn't even touch on the issue of those whose physiological sex and psychological sex are inconsistent with each other.

My suggestion is fill out nothing that does not fit. If the list of options does not include, at a minimum, an "other," option, then don't buttonhole yourself as male or female if you are neither.


Haha I thought I'd refrain but this was a consideration of mine.
I can't be the only person stuck on such a thing.
I was under the impression I needed to fill it out (not that I remember any more, with this poor attention span). I usually try to avoid putting myself in boxes I don't feel I belong in. =]



diniesaur
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04 Jan 2012, 1:00 pm

I had the same problem. I just picked my birth sex so it would make more sense if I talked about my vagina...although it would be nice to even things out...



Ambivalence
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04 Jan 2012, 4:02 pm

Fnord wrote:
Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male


Strange. You pretend to an objective viewpoint, and I'm sure you've posted on threads where this stupidity has been comprehensively debunked in the light of the many, varied and reasonably frequent ways chromosomes, the information on them and the physical results of same are scrambled.


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04 Jan 2012, 6:04 pm

I'm trans and I picked the gender I identify as. Just because I was born with a vagina doesn't mean I want to identify as a woman. I picked male, because I'm a guy and I'd like to be treated as one.

I can see how it could be difficult when you're genderfluid though.


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Fnord
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05 Jan 2012, 12:39 pm

Ambivalence wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Suggestion: Start with the genetic definition ("XX" = Female, or "XY" = Male
Strange. You pretend to an objective viewpoint, and I'm sure you've posted on threads where this stupidity has been comprehensively debunked in the light of the many, varied and reasonably frequent ways chromosomes, the information on them and the physical results of same are scrambled.

Why the attack? The OP had a question, and I made a suggestion. Get off my case.



qwan
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05 Jan 2012, 4:43 pm

They may be a bit sensitive to it.
I personally think genetic make up is neither here nor there when it comes to gender. Which is why I get annoyed when the words sex and gender are mistaken, it only further confuses things for others.

Mentioning XY this and that assumes they have more relation than some trans people would accept.
I appreciate the input though.

As for diniesaur, it would make people think more if they saw someone labelled as male talking about their vagina. ^_^



diniesaur
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07 Jan 2012, 6:47 pm

That's a good idea! Since looking at your post, I've decided to change mine to male. I'm going to go do that right now.



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09 Jan 2012, 8:10 pm

I've switched mine to male, because that's the gender that I identify with. I've felt male my entire life and I never really did like female things, so it makes more sense.


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John_lzhc
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13 Jan 2012, 3:52 pm

I put male, as that's how I present/live/pronoun, but I identify more as transmasculin than I do as male, and I'm close enough to genderqueer that sometimes I only ID trans*. It would be nice to have an other/neither/blank option, I'm sure it would make the sight a lot more welcoming to those of us on the edges (I know if I'm having a particularly aspy day I'll have trouble signing up to sights that demand a male/female answer, because anything I put is going to be a wrong answer and it'll bother the hell out of me).



qwan
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13 Jan 2012, 5:43 pm

John_lzhc wrote:
I put male, as that's how I present/live/pronoun, but I identify more as transmasculin than I do as male, and I'm close enough to genderqueer that sometimes I only ID trans*. It would be nice to have an other/neither/blank option, I'm sure it would make the sight a lot more welcoming to those of us on the edges (I know if I'm having a particularly aspy day I'll have trouble signing up to sights that demand a male/female answer, because anything I put is going to be a wrong answer and it'll bother the hell out of me).


I have to admit, i expected it'd have an other option to accommodate for people who get wound up about it, because that's one of my issues with such options, like in forms or questionnaires. >_<

I guess we need more people to be aware of the trans community before that happens. *sigh*



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14 Jan 2012, 2:02 pm

It's probably just never occurred to the folks at the top that some people would want other options, of they've thought that well, maybe a few people might find it neat and all, but not worth the effort of implementing (I'm told by developers that it can be a bit of a bugger to code for if you don't already have the options in the software).

I note that there's a suggestion thread in the admin section. I've put a suggestion in but I don't think it would hurt if a few other people came and echoed the sentiment. People aren't going to get aware until we start making ourselves heard, after all.


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