This issue of gender, I'm fine with someone feeling they should have been a man or a woman. I admittedly can't actually get my head around this 'pan' gender thing but I don't particularly care about things that have no bearing on my life.


Maybe it's just me, but I think if a baby pops out and it has a little winky, then put male etc.. If when the child has fully matured into an adult, the child then wants to identify as an man, woman, pan, frying pan, pressure cooker, African Swallow or some kind of smooth like an action man(/woman... equality), then fine, that is their choice. But I think in an increasingly violent and chaotic world, kids need some stability and direction to grow and not to be given yet more confusion.


Canadian baby 'first without gender designation' on health card - BBC News

I think this is interesting not because of the coding a gender aspect but because children are treated differently according to their gender. Such as "brave, bold, leader" for boys and "bossy, pushy strident" for girls. If people don't know the biological gender then they can't ascribe characteristics based on gender.

It's possible that a part of choosing gender is based on these proscribed attributes, say if you want to be seen as soft and gentle, or wear make up and high heels do you have to transition to be able to do this? Without any social constructs of gender then we would be free to choose.

This bit - "...those who feel different to the gender designation assigned at birth face several problems later in life trying to change their documents" - does make sense.

But why not just make it less difficult to change documents.

I noticed how the article had a lot of "the parent" and "they" like it needed a lot of careful attention to content - not necessarily a bad thing - and the laywer who chooses to spell her name without capital letters (she must have been a Little Feat fan )

This in a country that still uses handicapped as a term.

Me and my brothers - well, 3 of of us - did this when when we were kids. My mum had stage make-up as well as her own stuff so we'd get in a mess with that and put a dress and her shoes on.

I don't remember if she knew - I suppose she must have - or how she was about it but I would have expected her to put a stop to it.

I think the parent is acting in a manner that is both cruel and vain. Parents often do, of course, a child would not choose to have bits lopped off or to be assigned a religion. This child will need medical treatment according to the parts installed so a gender code on the healthcard is a convenience not a definition of expected lifestyle.

The real cruelty here though is calling the kid Cyril and then spelling it artfully. Cyril!

Presumably as part of the examination , the doctor would be able to hazard a fairly reasonable guess as to "what parts are installed"

I'd hate to think that a doctor has already made decisions about my healthcare requirements based on a single letter on my healthcard

I really don't think this is a huge deal, I have long said that gender is a useless piece of information on any identity document.

It's pure nonsense.

I would even say this trend of actively promoting transgender to young children only serves to confuse little minds. Perhaps it doesn't need to be hushed up (as in decades past) but it doesn't need to be constantly spotlighted either.

I agree that it's not a huge deal. It does, however, seem rather an own goal to make your child stand out as the one with the indecisive parent.

More than likely
Although maybe there are times when symptoms are presented to a doc prior to an exam, indicating one possibility over another, leading to a swifter diagnosis
With equalised retirement ages, same sex marriages etc it's certainly becoming less of an issue.

I dare say there are situations where it's still important though. Being held in custody to think of an obvious one? Unless all prisons become mixed.

This is very north american.

People here have seem to have really fixed ideas of gender roles. Instead of questioning societies different expectations of the two genders they believe it's more progressive to redefine gender as some sort of continuum and then identify as "non-binary" because they like motorbikes and the colour pink.

Speaking of identity issues, I was fixing strawberries and cream for dessert tonight using what my stepdaughter had brought in from her garden.

Among the bowl of strawberries was a single tomato.

I hope you used the tomato with the strawberries to show you support the destruction of societal imposed norms...?

So, small child goes to school. We all know that kids can be very cruel to the child who has an unusual name, a disability a parent with an unusual job...... What the heck are the other kids going to do with this child?

Are they going to welcome their school-fellow with open arms and say 'wow, how lovely of your parents to give you a choice'?
Are they hell, they are going to say 'here comes the kid who isn't a boy or a girl...ughhhh not playing with them.'

Home-schooling and will get a daily 'participation' trophy.

I see a Columbine-style event in around 17 years.

Knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.