Brave New (Gender) World
The U.S. is lagging behind ... Nepal?
Posted on 1/20/2011 at 7:00AM
SANDY HINGSTON
http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2011/01/20/brave-new-gender-world/ (http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2011/01/20/brave-new-gender-world/)
Last week, the director of Nepal's Central Bureau of Statistics announced that starting with May's national census, citizens of that nation will be able to specify a category of gender besides male or female: "other." The new option comes in the wake of a decision two years ago by Nepal's Supreme Court that required the government to enact laws guaranteeing the rights of gays, lesbians, transsexuals and bisexuals.
Nepal seems an odd place for this particular revolution to begin, but it turns out the Indian subcontinent has a long history of recognizing a third gender; its hijiras, who number around six million, don't consider themselves either female or male. There are reports that India will add a third-gender option to its census form next year. Plenty of other cultures make allowances for other-than-bifurcated gender identification in various ways, including Thailand and Indonesia. Worldwide, a number of different creation myths involve a third category of being.