What if you could legally be considered transgender?

[Rachael]

with respect for everyones gender identities, and expressions.
i have absolutely no issue with male/female/other
society on a whole is still a binary, and i expect it will remain this way for a very long time, i fit with this and like it. i have no problems with a male and female world. and the legal and medical systems MUST have a person as either male or female, there is no intermediate, no androgyne jails, or hospital wings.

R

[RebeccaFog]

with respect for everyones gender identities, and expressions.
i have absolutely no issue with male/female/other
R

It's all we're asking, Kid.

[no_id]

with respect for everyones gender identities, and expressions.
i have absolutely no issue with male/female/other
R

It's all we're asking, Kid.

*Wonders why Reeb capitalised kid...*

[Rachael]

cos i r teh kid init ><

R

[no_id]

cos i r teh kid init ><

R

Me no speak leet. Please you say where next whiskeybar is? 

[Shana A]

and the legal and medical systems MUST have a person as either male or female, there is no intermediate, no androgyne jails, or hospital wings.

I'm not aware of any instance in which my sex/gender MUST need to be known and/or segregated. As far as medical personnel, if my doctor needs to know, I will tell them, although after years in med school, one would hope they could figure that out. 

Zythyra

[Rachael]

legal system must have you as male or female, for one....
there are only mens and womens prisons... you must face the law as a binary. its just how it its.
medically, ofcourse there are mixed wards, but you must have either male or female as your legal sex. medically and legally, its just how the world works atm.
R

[TreeFlower]

Ummmm.... NO!   Not for me.  I'm female.  If anything I'd like the option to put in a "-" (dash) meaning I decline or I refuse to be put into your little pidgeon holes.

Anyway, how are you going to get people to accept T when they still use "sex" on the form rather than "gender"?

[Rachael]

because they want to know what physical body thier employee for example,. will have, some jobs require a male, some a female. some dont care. its just how it is.

R

[Shana A]

legal system must have you as male or female, for one....
there are only mens and womens prisons... you must face the law as a binary. its just how it its.

With any luck, I won't ever have to deal with the jail part 

medically, ofcourse there are mixed wards, but you must have either male or female as your legal sex. medically and legally, its just how the world works atm.

Yes, that's how it works now, but I don't believe there's necessarily good reason for it to continue this way.

Zythyra

[Melissa]

Name         : ...............................
Surname     : ...............................
D.O.B.        : ...............................
Gender       : ...............................
Nationality  : ...............................

From a programmer's point of view (perhaps this applies to data entry as well), using a selection of available choices is a means of reducing data errors.  The term for this is "poka-yoke", which roughly translated from Japanese means "to avoid inadvertent mistakes".  By allowing a text box for people, you could end up with values such as "F", "Female", "woman", "girl", "womyn" or it could be misspelled (and you know somebody WILL do that).  It also speeds up data entry for a person when they just need to select an existing option. 

The thing is, the majority of programmers/form designers/database designers are not even aware that there is anything besides male and female, and even if they are, several things different need to coordinate (such as having "Androgyne" on both the form AND in the database AND in the data entry program).  So those are some reasons why so few of forms have it.  Although it's true that having it be a legally recognized gender AND having people aware of it would most likely make many of these forms and programs have the option of something besides male and female, it unnecessary to make it legal to have additional options placed on forms or in programs.  Just educating people should be enough to start achieving this.  I for one will try and add something besides male/female (most likely just "Other") for my programs, although I haven't even added a field like this in quite a while.  I probably wouldn't be placing 6 different options or whatever it was because I don't want to show I know so much and I don't want it to get confusing to non-TG people filling out forms.

[Pica Pica]

i am fine ticking M for sex...but for gender i start to have problems.
Most ask for sex, and the last time I checked, my sex was unequivocally male.

[Melissa]

i am fine ticking M for sex...but for gender i start to have problems.
Most ask for sex, and the last time I checked, my sex was unequivocally male.

In my recent experience, it seems that most ask me for gender.  Perhaps it has something to do with where we live.

Regarding your sex being "unequivocally male", I actually thought you were female born for a while.

[Pica Pica]

True, I was female born...but I don't know anyone that wasn't. Except Bob, but he was an experiment and they never tried that again.

[no_id]

Name         : ...............................
Surname     : ...............................
D.O.B.        : ...............................
Gender       : ...............................
Nationality  : ...............................

From a programmer's point of view (perhaps this applies to data entry as well), using a selection of available choices is a means of reducing data errors.  The term for this is "poka-yoke", which roughly translated from Japanese means "to avoid inadvertent mistakes".  By allowing a text box for people, you could end up with values such as "F", "Female", "woman", "girl", "womyn" or it could be misspelled (and you know somebody WILL do that).  It also speeds up data entry for a person when they just need to select an existing option. 

The thing is, the majority of programmers/form designers/database designers are not even aware that there is anything besides male and female, and even if they are, several things different need to coordinate (such as having "Androgyne" on both the form AND in the database AND in the data entry program).  So those are some reasons why so few of forms have it.  Although it's true that having it be a legally recognized gender AND having people aware of it would most likely make many of these forms and programs have the option of something besides male and female, it unnecessary to make it legal to have additional options placed on forms or in programs.  Just educating people should be enough to start achieving this.  I for one will try and add something besides male/female (most likely just "Other") for my programs, although I haven't even added a field like this in quite a while.  I probably wouldn't be placing 6 different options or whatever it was because I don't want to show I know so much and I don't want it to get confusing to non-TG people filling out forms.

Having worked with a simple program as SPSS I can completely understand that it's a heck lot of extra work xD
At this point I still think F/M/O is the best option and easily processed, though as Andra would say; some individuals who do identify as F or M might choose O as a politcal standpoint.

[Melissa]

True, I was female born...but I don't know anyone that wasn't.

By "female born", I'm not talking about starting off as female in utero, but rather what you were when you were actually born.

[Pica Pica]

oh, meat and two veg,

[RebeccaFog]

with respect for everyones gender identities, and expressions.
i have absolutely no issue with male/female/other
R

It's all we're asking, Kid.

*Wonders why Reeb capitalised kid...*

So am I, Kid, so am I (wondering)

[Hypatia]

Absolutely NOT. I'm female or nothing. If I can't be a woman I will f***ing die trying. I just know that if a "transgender" category is established somebody will try to relegate us all into that like Jews into a concentration camp, and I ain't goin'. Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, baby. I keep seeing the assumption (usually by cisgender people) that trans people have to form a "third gender." I'm having none of that. I'm a woman.

I have no problem with "Other" as a voluntary category for any who feel excluded by M and F--although as has been pointed out, everyone still has to deal with a binary-gendered structure of the world, however we prefer to define ourselves. That is an issue that would take a lot more to reform than adding an extra box to check on forms.

[Rachael]

i dont think this is forcing anyone trans to be 3rd gender, if it is, ill fight it til i die....
i am woman, here me rawr!
R