Swedish church group offers choice of three genders

[Shana A]

Swedish church group offers choice of three genders

Published: 24 Feb 10 15:05 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25186/20100224/

http://www.thelocal.se/25186/20100224/

Sensus, a Swedish church-backed study association, has adopted a new policy to allow prospective employees to classify their gender in three ways: Female, Male or Other.

The study association, which runs courses in a range of disciplines for more than 350,000 Swedes, has decided to introduce a third alternative in its standard online application form.

"It is a question of letting you as an individual decide for yourself how you want to be defined. Or if you turn it around, you should not have to have one role privately and another as an employee," explained Johan Welander at Sensus to Church of Sweden newspaper, Kyrkans Tidning.

[Alyssa M.]

Oh, for Christ's sake!

Gee, it's fun to be "other." "Othering" is always good times. I wish I could be "other" every single day of my life! Oh, wait ...

Look: I don't want a third option. Given two options, I'll check "F." But I'd really rather not check any damned boxes at all. Why does my gender have to be so important? Why not ask me what my hair color is instead? Or would I have to check "other" on that account as well, since I'm neither platinum blonde nor black-haired?