What's so interesting about that?

[Nathan Karr]

Wow, what an interesting thread. Just to screw things up a little more, if gender is so definite, then what about transgender people? Are they defined as whatever gender they were before?

Yes, your original birth sex is the one that determines which gender's pronouns you're supposed to have(no matter your secondary appearance traits or how you were raised to think of yourself). I know it's offensive to take a definite stance on something like this, but offensive does not equal wrong.

Say you have a guy who can change his gender at will.

If he can actually transform and become an effective female (not just one for the sake of appearance), he can use female pronouns when he's being female.

In English, there is no third-person singular personal genderless pronoun... "it" can't be used for people, and "they/them" has no singular form. But not all languages have this gap in their vocabulary.

Exactly. Other languages have different rules; I only really know the rules for English. And while some try to shoehorn they/them/their into use as a singular third-person pronoun to avoid offense, this is ineffective because it does offend people -- in that there's at least one person other than myself who takes offense at it.

[Bob the Hamster]

Wow, what an interesting thread. Just to screw things up a little more, if gender is so definite, then what about transgender people? Are they defined as whatever gender they were before?

Yes, your original birth sex is the one that determines which gender's pronouns you're supposed to have(no matter your secondary appearance traits or how you were raised to think of yourself). I know it's offensive to take a definite stance on something like this, but offensive does not equal wrong.

Yes, this is offensive. I deeply once offended a transgendered friend by insisting on calling her "him" just because of her XY chromosomes. Like you can see a chromosome. Like a chromosome really matters. I regret that my close-minded actions lost me a friend who I really cared about.

Let people decide their own identities.

[Nathan Karr]

A man can't decide that he's actually a woman, and even though he can undergo surgery to change what he looks and feels like, he'll still be a man because a man is what God made him. Same kinda thing as how I can't just start calling myself a raccoon and expect people to accept that I am a raccoon. Even with all the best surgery and makeup in the world, I'd still be a man, and there's nothing I can do about it.

[Mogri]

Hermaphrodites?

[The Wobbler]

This is seriously the stupidest thread on the forum no one is going to convince anyone of anything especially when people bring religion into it, just close it now.

[JSH357]

Oh, Nathan. *Laugh track*