Germany to recognize third gender

[michaelArc]

German parents can register babies as third gender, court rules

 

[Raxus]

Welp, when fantasies are codified into law, you know a country’s lost.

 

[Raxus]

There are only two biological genders: Male and female. Some rare hermaphrodites few are born with characteristics of both, and determinations are made as to how much more of one there is than the other.

All of our medicine and biological science revolves around the only two biological genders that exist. It is a gravely dangerous slippery slope to start simply saying “Eh, this baby is both or neither” when it’s not true.

 

[J_Peterson]

It’s confusing because we are told gender is distinct from sex. I can buy that; makes a certain amount of sense. This article uses the terms interchangeably though. What they are talking about is biological sex, not gender. Being born with no penis or vagina isn’t a choice, an identity, nor is it something that can change. This is not about gender spectrum theory or whatever they call it. If a child is born with ambiguous or nonexistent genitals than their gender should be considered “neutral” until it’s clear what they are with the understanding they may be neither.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

I didn’t read the article but have encountered this story in other news sources. In summary it was in recognition of intersexed individuals since not everyone is born with clearly male or female characteristics. This can happen in a number of different ways, such as one’s combination of X and Y chromosomes not conforming to what might be expected from their genitals or the genitals not being well formed. I won’t post images here, but for those curious a Google image search on “intersex genitalia” will show examples.

If a person was born with a vagina and has X and Y chromosomes such a person could be classified as intersexed. There are also a spectrum of possible forms between a penis and a vagina that one can have. If you look in an embryology book on how the penis on a fetus is formed it makes a lot more sense how these can happen.

I don’t think anyone that understands the article would see that as related. I’ve not seen that [m]any people have concerns for which bathroom intersexed people use.

There are only two biological genders: Male and female

I think you are talking about “sex” not “gender.”…

It’s confusing because we are told gender is distinct from sex.

Gender can be applied to objects that are sexless. I said this in another thread, but will repeat it here. Prior to the 1970s you see the word “sex” being used to talk about one’s biological characteristics. During the 1970s there was research done on a child that had a messed up penis. I don’t know if it was an accident of circumcision or a birth defect or what was the cause of this child having a messed up penis, but it happened. IT was decided to raise the child as a girl. The doctor that was studying the child wrote of the child being “gendered” as a female. The pronoun used to refer to the child was “she.” The clothing that the child wore included dresses, so on. All of these are part of the social behaviours and labels that we used and are not themselves biological. In his publication on studying the child “sex” referred to the biological characteristics while “gender” referred to the social ones. Prior to this paper you don’t really find people using the word “gender” to talk about one’s biological characteristics.

But language usage changes over time. People started to use the word “Sex” with the same usage that had been associated with “sexual intercourse” and started to use “gender” in place of “Sex.” The Transgender community sometimes points to both this paper to show how they are using the word “gender” and prior to it gender was primarily about grammatical categories. For example the word “tablet” is “diminutive masculine” but no table or tablet would be said to have a sex.