Gender options

Mark A Mandel mam at THEWORLD.COM
Tue May 7 17:42:12 UTC 2002


I know at least two people who were born physically into one sex but
considered themselves to belong to the other. It isn't much help to such
people to say "You shouldn't use this word to describe your situation,
because technically it refers to something else, but we don't have a
convenient word for your situation" -- not that I'm saying that anyone
on this list would say such a thing.

Both these people have had medical procedures to align their bodies
with the X (sex, gender, what you will: the obligatory dyadic choice
that our society imposes) that they feel they belong to. Current usage
shows that "transgender(ed)" is the term that such people choose to
describe their situation. Is that choice any less legitimate than, say
"Inuit" over "Eskimo"?

-- Mark A. Mandel



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