Has the world gone mad? .... "X' passport policy challenged A campaigner wins the right to contest the government's refusal to issue gender-neutral documents." I fully understand and accept that the brain is a complex piece of 'kit' and chemicals and hormones may well, on rare occasions, mean some people are born with the mindset, urges and characteristics of a woman but are 'trapped' in a male body and vice versa. Modern medical science is now sufficiently advanced to be capable, in many cases, of partly correcting that anomaly for some people through surgery. Again I understand and accept that . What I don't understand is this latest 'fad' which seems media driven of 'gender neutral' this and 'gender neutral that'. If you are born with a penis and have male characteristics you are technically and legally a male. If you are born with a vagina and develop breasts and have female characteristics you are technically and legally a woman. This has been the case for millennia in all but a handful of species. As I said, medical science can now help people to change sex and identity. However, all of a sudden, it seems people want to stir things up and confuse matters by creating a third group. I appears to be nothing to do with the above issues of wrong body as per above, nor is it about prejudice or someone being embarrassed using male facilities if you inside feel you are a woman but are physically male. You go to the WC, for example, as a man with other men and no-one is the wiser, Likewise with women. Most statistical data relies on gender ID for for planning etc. I just don't understand why all of a sudden this is a big issue. Can anyone explain?
to quote Germaine Greer (something I never thought I'd say on a football forum!) Just because a man may chop off his lovely person* and b**** doesn't mean he is a woman.
I don't understand it, and my lack of understanding of something that doesn't affect me is more important than someone else's right to choose. Are we clear? Good.
The only real negative I can see with the "Gender Neutral" argument, is if anyone is allowed to assign themselves as gender neutral. I mean, while I accept that the vast majority of cases will be genuine cases of someone not identifying as male or female, there is always that small percentage of people who will use it for unsavoury reasons. Like if a pervert decides to come out as gender neutral so he can use the woman's/men's(delete as appropriate) toilets to spy and get his/her/x's rocks off(this was a point mentioned when a gender neutral person was on Good Morning Britain the other morning). Personally, I feel if someone is unable to identify as a man or a woman, there should be checks done by a professional(I wont say medical pro, as I don't think it is a physical or mental illness), which will stop any shady uses of the privilege(is that the right word?)
I'm not really sure of the point of 'gender'. I understand the point of sex (haha, you know what I mean) where people are born as a man or a woman or intersex but gender is just a social construct. I don't mind identifying as 'female' although I like football and pints and wear make-up only a couple of times a year etc. Other than the scientific differences such as body parts, hormones etc. the rest can all happily do one for me, it does far more harm than good.